Steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz appeals for LE 500M reconciliation

CAIRO – 17 May 2017: Steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz urged a court on Sunday to approve reconciliation in the case in which he is charged with seizing public funds and deliberate squandering of Dekheila Steel Company’s assets.

Ezz said during the hearing that he is “ready for reconciliation no matter the price.” The case also involves six other leaders of the Industry Ministry from President Hosni Mubarak’s era. Their next hearing is scheduled for 18 September.

Ezz’s lawyers provided documents proving that he offered LE 500 million in a reconciliation deal to the National Committee to Retrieve State Funds to drop all cases filed against him.

The former CEO of Dekheila is accused of dropping fines owed by his private company to Dekheila, in which the state owned shares, selling Dekheila products to his company upon credit and for less than the prime cost, buying shares of his stumbling company at the expense of Dekheila, and other charges.

The defendants are being retried after their appeal was accepted. The initial judgment sentenced Ezz to 37 years in prison, while the six officials were sentenced to 3-7 years in prison. They were ordered to return the funds and fined similar amounts.

Although Ezz and three officials were ordered released pending the case, the businessman remains in jail pending another case known in the media as “steel licenses,” where he is charged with squandering 660 million EGP of public funds.