Investigation into corruption case at Endowments Authority starts

CAIRO - 3 March 2019: The Supreme Public Money Prosecution has been investigating employees at the Egyptian Endowments Authority for being involved in selling 20 feddans in prices below fair market value, and shares at the Housing and Development Bank.

The investigation team interrogated the defendants as they were faced by recordings, documents, and testimonies in lawsuit no. 77/2018. However, the public employees denied the charges stated in the arraignment as they are accused of forging financial documents, bribery, illegal benefit of public jobs, and facilitating larceny of state lands.

The defendants are accused of acquiring a total of LE 400 million in bribery, and selling some of the authority’s shares in the Housing and Development Bank without a prior consent by the board and without informing the Ministry of Endowments.

As a result, the authority has been denied LE 20 million in dividends. Also, investigations indicated that the shares were sold to individuals and not to state entities which can have a dangerous impact taking into consideration that the bank operates in a sensitive sector, the national housing projects sector.

The evidence was collected by the Illegal Earning Agency. The lawsuit includes four defendants. Two of them were arrested.

In January, the Administrative Control Authority arrested some officials at Qena Endowments Directorate for embezzling LE 1 million as they added fictional names to the lists of awards and bonuses recipients.

Furthermore, a senior accountant at Al-Azhar University was referred by the Public Prosecution to Cairo Criminal Court for embezzling LE 400,000 and forging invoices.