Posted on 02/11/2011 5:54:30 PM PST by Pan_Yan
'I can confirm that Switzerland has frozen possible assets of the former Egyptian president with immediate effect,' spokesman Lars Knuchel said soon after Mr Mubarak bowed to 18 days of mass protests. 'As a result of this measure any assets are frozen for three years.' He did not say how much money was involved or where it was.
Assets belonging to Mr Mubarak's associates would also be targeted so as to limit the chance of state funds being plundered, the ministry said.
(Excerpt) Read more at straitstimes.com ...
Note to self: if at any time in the future, I’m selected to be the US strong-man dictator of an otherwise unmanageable country, do not store compensation in Swiss banks. Check.
Uh. Barn door. Closed after the cows have already got out. Ya’ll reckon?
Quick question: suppose you declare yourself King and give yourself a right to all funds (ala Saudi Arabia or UAE.) Can someone make that illegal after the king is deposed?
Wiseguys and dictators should forget the Swiss; try the Kayman islands banks for numbered accounts and anonymity.
Any law or pronouncment not grounded in natural law is mutable.
Apparently, the presidency of Egypt pays very well.
My question is who requested or authorized this? Does Switzerland just lock up the funds of everyone who loses their job? Did the Egyptian government request this for some reason? I mean, they are $400 billion in debt, I’m sure they’d like to get some of the $50-70 billion the Mubaraks have bilked back, but did the VP or military request it formally in less than 24 hours of Mubarak resigning?
Touche’
US dollars.
Up for grabs.
Yeah most likely or Mubarak will be making another speech soon inciting western people to MYOB as he loves the youth of Egypt and will not forsake her.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/how-the-mubarak-family-made-its-billions_n_821757.html
“But as time went on, the cronies around him started taking advantage of the system,” he says. “And the other factor was his children got into business, taking commissions out of each and every company that comes to Egypt. The way they have amassed that money is not by stealing but by ensuring that businesses that want to operate in Egypt pay from 5 percent to 20 percent commission to a company formed by Gamal Mubarak. I know businessmen who have been squeezed this way.”
Some of the family’s wealth is also believed to be through partnerships with foreign companies — under Egyptian law, foreign businesses are required to give a local partners a 51-percent stake in their Egyptian operations. “According to this law, any multinational company needs to have a local sponsor, and this local sponsor usually goes through members of the family or powerful people in the ruling party,” says Aladdin Elaasar, the author of “Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future.”
It depends entirely who that "someone" is. If it's a replacement government that is recognized by the major global economic players as well as the UN, then probably. Most, but perhaps not all, foreign banks will aqueous to the demands of the existing sovereign, not necessarily the previous sovereign.
I can promise you there are still hundreds of millions, maybe hundreds of billions, sitting in banks all over the globe from Cuba, half the South American countries, Iran, Iraq and dozens more, for this very reason. The money exits, but the ownership is less than well-defined. So, the banks just sit on those deposits, probably hoping that no one comes collecting.
Such are the banking uncertainties that come as a career dictator. Between that, the exploding cars and poisonous food, it's usually not the best long-term career choice, unless of course your name is Castro.
Mubarak had a good investment adviser.
That ‘someone’ can be a democratic government. As for money sitting, we know the story of holocaust victim money sitting for 60 years in Swiss accounts until they were sued, so it’s plausible.
What dictator worth his salt waits until AFTER he has announced his resignation to begin moving his finances to where he can easily get them? My guess is that for the past week or so he has been doing just that; and that the Swiss merely made this announcement for its PR value.
Leave your assets with me — I won’t raise taxes.
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