Properties around the world, 2 yachts, network of bribed companies-How The Mubarak Family Got Rich

[kpete]

The Mubarak family reportedly owns properties around the world, from London and Paris to New York and Beverly Hills. In addition to homes in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh and the upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis, they also have a six-story mansion in the Knightsbridge section of London, a house near the Bois de Bologne in Paris and two yachts.

Largely through Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, the family controls a network of companies that earn money through concessions wrangled from foreign companies that do business in Egypt, according to prominent businessmen and "Corruption In Egypt: The Black Cloud Is Not Disappearing," an investigative report compiled in 2006 by a coalition of opposition groups. (The report, which names the companies allegedly owned by the Mubarak brothers and details multiple instance of corruption by government officials, has been cited by numerous international good government groups, such as Transparency International, but it was taken offline and is no longer available on the Internet. The Huffington Post obtained a copy, replete with rhetorical flourishes and thinly-sourced allegations, which is available here.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/how-the-mubarak-family-made-its-billions_n_821757.html

"Egypt's state under Mubarak's regime is an embodiment of corruption," concludes the report, with descriptions of numerous allegations of corruption involving bribery, undue influence and nepotism.

In the 1980s, Mubarak seemed sincere in his desire to crack down on corruption in an effort to distinguish himself from Sadat, says an Egyptian-American businessman who often does business in the country. "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."


the rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/how-the-mubarak-family-made-its-billions_n_821757.html

[annabanana]

1. Gee. . Sounds like the .01 top % of Americans. . .

YOu know, the ones with no taxes.

[Arctic Dave]

2. When the mob does it, it's called extortion.

[madmax]

3. Exactly - commission my ass.

His sons were extorting money from companies that wanted to do business with Egypt. Goons.

[loudsue]

4. Extrapolate: Huge army contracts: planes, tanks...10%, 20% of billions?

Over & over again? Yep. This is part of the reason the military-industrial-political complex-controlled US legislature was supporting Mubarak: sell more weapons, give them more aid in taxpayer dollars, they buy more, they get richer, and so does the American military-industrial complex.

The whole world has become one corrupt corporate circle jerk. Maybe it has been this way since the beginning. Maybe I just envision a different earth than the one I actually live on.

[Hydra]

5. Like everything, it started small

it's just gone global, organized and unpunished. Trillions of dollars that get passed around with a handshake, mostly out of the pockets of the working stiff.