Egypt’s official urges drafting intl’ legislation to combat bitcoin trading

CAIRO – 30 November 2017: First attorney general of the financial affairs’ prosecution counselor Mohamed Fouda on Thursday called for drafting an international legislation to combat dealing with the digital currency bitcoin, considering it a means to finance terror groups.

Fouda made the remarks during his speech at the 12th Annual Conference of the Africa’s Prosecutors Association taking place from 28-30 November in Cairo.

During his speech, Fouda also shed light on the increase in the bitcoin trade via different websites without disclosing any information about its sources, or bodies that deal with it, making it difficult to track those transfers.

Egypt's banks are now taking measures to inquire about large sums of money deposited by any client, he said, asserting that banks classify these huge amounts of money as suspicious financial transactions in case they did not receive an adequate explanation from the client.

Also, he highlighted high risks caused by money laundering, citing some economic damage of such crime, including draining away the country’s economy, which in turn leads to an economic recession, low GDP growth rates, the devaluation of national currency exchange rate, high inflation rates and decreased purchasing power.