3 Tri-Ocean Energy officials refereed to criminal court for $1B embezzlement

CAIRO - 18 October 2018: Three officials at Tri-Ocean Energy were referred to a criminal court Thursday per an Attorney-General decision for the embezzlement of $1 billion from the company’s assets.

Deputy board director Mohamed Mahfouz al-Ansari wired $9.5 million to accounts at Bank Audi in Switzerland and Qatar National Bank (QNB) in Doha.

The second defendants transferred $4.272 million to a company he owns, named MH Ltd for trade and imports, at bank accounts with QNB in Cairo and Doha, as well as Bank Audi in Cairo and Doha. He also wired $4.453 million to his personal account at QNB in Doha.

The two defendants engaged in money laundry to hide the embezzlement from the shareholding company whose capital is shared by public funds.

From February 2012 until September 2012, the two defendants transferred $18 million from the accounts of the company at QNB in Doha, Mashreq Bank in Dubai, the Arab African Bank in Dubai, and Misr Bank in Dubai to three other accounts, according to investigations.

The wiring occurred from the accounts of Tri-Ocean Energy and OCS and another company owned by Tri-Ocean Energy to the personal account of Ansari, the personal account of M.F.H Labibompa, the financial director of Tri-Ocean and the general director of OCS, as well as MN Ltd for trade and antennas, owned by the latter.

The Commercial International Bank, which owns 15 percent of Tri-Ocean, revealed that the defendants embezzled $950 from May 25, 2011 to October 29, 2015 by omitting deposits from the company’s bank accounts and transferring them to their own. They also eliminated the company’s investments in other companies.