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| Africa North |
| Egypt housing ministers arrest roils property market |
| 2011-04-08 |
| [Arab News] Egypt's property investment market suffered a further jolt on Wednesday with the arrest of a second housing minister as part of an anti-corruption campaign. Ibrahim Soliman, housing minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , was responsible for several controversial deals with real estate firms. The charges against him say he gave a plot of land to SODIC SODIC's non-executive chairman Magdi Rasekh is the father-in-law of Mubarak's eldest son Alaa. The charges accuse Soliman of squandering 600 million Egyptian pounds ($101 million) of public funds in the land deal. An official in the Public Prosecutor's office said Soliman will be jugged for 15 days pending investigation and Rasekh was to be incarcerated for his role in the case. SODIC said in an e-mailed statement that it was an independent firm and was not a party to any investigations, adding that Rasekh's ownership did not exceed 0.0017 percent of the firm's shares. The firm denied there was any wrongdoing in the contract in which it received the plot of land, saying the parcel was priced in accordance with its market value at the time. "The company ... is appealing to all administrative bodies to help it in clarifying the reality of the picture and is relying on documents which confirm its solid legal position," it said. Property companies already have been reeling under a string of legal challenges contesting their land holdings since a court ruled last year that a deal with Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), the country's biggest developer, was illegal. TMG has been in a long-running legal battle for its $3 billion Madinaty project because the land was not auctioned and was sold below market value. That suit has prompted several copycat cases, including one against Egypt's second biggest listed developer Palm Hills and Egyptian Resorts. Palm Hill's Chairman and Chief Executive Yasseen Mansour is also facing trial in a case connected to the other housing minister, Ahmed el-Maghrabi, for profiteering and wasting public funds. |
| Posted by:Fred |