Probe sought of Mubarak family's fortune

China Daily), February 15, 2011

Switzerland has frozen whatever assets Hosni Mubarak and his associates may have there, and anti-corruption campaigners are demanding the same of other countries. But experts say hunting for the deposed Egyptian leader's purported hidden wealth - let alone recovering it - will be an enormous task.

Mubarak's actual worth remains a mystery. A recent claim that he and his sons Gamal and Alaa may have amassed a fortune of up to $70 billion - greater than that of Microsoft's Bill Gates - helped drive the protests that eventually brought him down.

"Oh, Mubarak, tell us where you got 70 billion dollars!" protesters chanted in demonstrations before Egypt's ruler of 30 years was driven from office on Friday, and left Cairo for a gated compound in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Forty percent of the country's 80 million people live on $2 or less a day, and critics accused officials of usurping the nation's wealth.

In recent days, watchdog groups and private lawyers have demanded that the country's chief prosecutor launch criminal investigations against the Mubaraks and some of their wealthy associates. Scores of former government officials have already been banned from travel and several, among them four former Cabinet ministers, have had their assets frozen.

How far these investigations will go ultimately depends on the political will of Egypt's leadership, said Eric Lewis, a partner with Washington-based law firm Baach, Robinson & Lewis, which specializes in international asset tracing and has done work in Kenya and Pakistan.

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