Interior Min. arrests 22 charged with seizing LE 47m from Egyptians' savings

CAIRO - 19 January 2018: Interior Ministry launched a campaign against fraudulent, arresting 22 persons, who illegally seized LE 47 million of citizens’ money. The Interior Ministry’s search for the culprits lasted three months and spanned the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Sohag, and Dakahlia, according to the ministry's statement on Friday.

The arrested face charges of seizing citizens’ savings by claiming to run businesses with providing them with the interest, which is a violation of Law No. 146/1988, “Promulgating the Law on Companies Operating in the Field of Receiving and Pooling Funds for Investment.”

The 22 persons are accused of seizing LE 47 million from 149 citizens, they claimed to invest the money in return for monthly profits, but neither relinquished the profits or returned the original sum of money.

Major General Ali Sultan, assistant of the Interior Minister for monetary inquiries, ordered the implementation of all the legal procedures against the accused who will be questioned by the Public Prosecution.

This phenomenon of taking Egyptians’ savings is continuing form 1980s till nowadays. According to security sources, LE 5 billion were collected form Egyptian citizens throughout the first half of 2017, by people who faced accusations of taking people’s money to invest them in fields like real state, agriculture and importing, in return they paid monthly profits exceed 20 percent of the original amount of paid money.

Due to the big interest they offered, people preferred to invest their savings with those con men instead of depositing them in legitimate banks, which costs the state huge losses.

Once the fake businessmen collect large amount of money, they just disappear leaving those citizens without any legal papers to prove their rights.

The most famous con operation was ran in the 80s by Ahmed al-Rayyan, a businessman persuaded Egyptians, who just returned home from oil-rich Gulf countries, to invest their money in big projects, and when he failed to meet the promises to his clients he was arrested and spent 21 years behind the bars, from 1989 to 2010, due to charges of scam.