Turkish paper claims conspiracy against Egyptian economy

CAIRO – 21 June 2017: A Turkish opposition newspaper on Wednesday accused Qatar, Turkey and Israel of conspiring against the Egyptian economy.

According to Zaman Arabic, “a bank in Malta has been involved in a fraud, which resulted in exporting millions of dollars worth of Egyptian products without return, inflicting huge losses on the economy.”

The bank reportedly forged bank checks in favor of some Egyptian exporters, and then halted a deal with the exporters when they refused to provide defective products.

The bank, the newspaper alleged, refused any reconciliation with the exporters, bearing losses of millions of dollars. This was done with the aim of “halting Egyptian exports and inflicting billions of dollars’ worth of losses on Egypt.”

“Several members of the bank’s board of directors are reportedly former employees and high rank officials in Qatari and Israeli banks,” The allegations claimed. “The Turkish-based bank is known to have links with Israeli bank, Leumi, and another Israeli company that was involved in corruption crimes in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico in 2016.”

The evidence and suspicions against the Turkish based bank were submitted to the Egyptian general prosecutor, in addition to a similar notice about Qatari National Bank in Egypt (QNB).