Mahdi Abbassi, a member of the Tunisian committee for restoring funds smuggled outside Tunisia during the rule of toppled president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, said Egypt will only be able to restore 20 percent of the funds smuggled outside Egypt during Hosni Mubarak's rule.
A Swiss lawyer previously told Al-Masry Al-Youm the same estimation.
As the cost of money laundering is 40-60 percent of the original amount being laundered, more than half the money smuggled out goes to criminal gangs, Abbassi said.
Money smuggled out over the past five years will be easy to track because it will not have been subjected to several money laundering operations, he added, while funds smuggled out during the revolution, until Mubarak’s assets were frozen, will not have been exposed to any laundering operations and will not require great effort to return, he added.
However, much of the money stashed away throughout Mubarak’s 30-year reign will be almost impossible to locate, he said.
The Swiss lawyer said Egypt will be able to restore 100 percent of all funds that can be tracked down in Swiss banks, but the amounts located will only constitute 20 percent of that originally smuggled out of the country.
He said that money laundering operations are carried out by specialized organized crime gangs, and when several laundering operations are conducted it can be difficult even for the smuggler himself to trace the money.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Mahsoub, secretary for the committee for the restoration of Egypt’s funds, said Egypt will regain all the money smuggled to Switzerland, as well as interest accrued on it. He added that Swiss law states that money stolen from nations should be returned in conformance to the UN Convention Against Corruption.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
