Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has summoned the former director of Egypt’s stock market, Maged Shawky, and the head of the Financial Suprevisory Authority, Ziad Bahaa Eddin, for questioning. The decision comes following reports filed by a number of stock market investors which accuse Shawky and Bahaa Eddin of adopting decisions that have damaged the country’s economy.
The Minister of Investment, Mahmoud Mohie Eddin, issued a decree three days ago replacing Shawky with Khaled Serry Syam. Mohie Eddin later stressed that the move was taken with Shawky’s consent, as he wished to resign after five years in office.
In the reports submitted by the investors it was alleged that Shawky and Bahaa Eddin’s decisions facilitated the smuggling of money of major businessmen abroad, causing others to go bankrupt. Some investors even committed suicide due to their losses, it was alleged. It was also charged that Shawky listed some companies in the stock market who did not meet the standard requirements.
Bahaa Eddin said he has not yet received any communication from the prosecution, claiming ignorance of the charges.
Al-Masry Al-Youm has learned that the the reports were primarily filed against Shawky, but that Bahaa Eddin became involved as he did not object to what his accusers consider to be faulty decisions made by Shawky.
Meanwhile sources at Egypt’s stock market have dismissed the charges as “baseless,” saying that most of the decisions in question were sound and approved by the stock market’s administration and by the supervisory authority. They attribute the accusations to 2009 decisions to stop trading the shares of 29 companies which had not met financial and regulatory standards .
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
