Naguib Sawiris: The Bribe Man, Continued . . .

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is famous for more than building a global telecom empire. He's infamous, in fact, for his involvement with bribe and corruption everywhere from Israel to Italy.

Israeli newspaper Maariv claimed Naguib Sawiris paid bribes to Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and his wife Nili Priel to help him win approvals for Orascom Telecom Holding to increase its stake in Israeli operator Partners Communication. In Europe, the Italian financial police conducted an investigation of Naguib Sawiris over USD 135 million in consultancy fees that were suspected to be disguised kickbacks during the purchase of the majority stake in Wind Spa by a consortium led by Naguib Sawiris' Orascom Telecom Holding.
The subject of Naguib Sawiris' bribery was also raised in the London High Court case filed against him by his former Italian business partner. During the trial, lawyers pressed Naguib Sawiris about how he secured his lucrative telecom license in the Congo with Rami Antaki by purchasing 100 percent of Libertis Telecom (If you're not already familiar with the story of how Naguib Sawiris and Antaki paid off the Congolese President's daughter, click here. )
During the court case, Naguib Sawiris lied by claiming his friend Rami Antaki's company had already "been granted a telecoms license and completed all the groundwork associated with obtaining that license" before he was brought into the Congo deal. However, Naguib Sawiris' statement contradicted evidence provided by Jack Hazout, a telecom consultant who refused to go through with a separate deal with Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso at an earlier juncture due to the fact that the government's preconditions were that his daughter "Joujou" would receive a stake in the telecom company before a license was granted.
"From my own knowledge and from what Mr. Antaki has told me," Mr. Hazout said, "Mr. Sawiris' account is not correct . . . the letter from the Congolese government was not a license and, as far as I am aware, no license was granted until the government's preconditions had been met after Mr. Sawiris became involved."

Will Naguib Sawiris use this year's World Cup to manipulate Orascom's stocks again?

It's World Cup time again. And for the second year in a row Orascom Telecom's chairman Naguib Sawiris is in big economic trouble. Last week Naguib Sawiris issued an Orascom statement indicating that Algeria's government was ready to begin discussions concerning a possible sale of Orascom's Algerian unit, Djezzy, to MTN.

As a result of Naguib Sawiris' annoucement, Orascom's stocks jumped 3.1 percent.

Too bad Naguib Sawiris was lying and yet again manipulating stock prices, because Naguib Sawiris then issued a separate statement announcing that talks between Weather Investments (Naguib Sawiris now controls Orascom through Weather) and MTN over the sale of Djezzy failed. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, now Naguib Sawiris needs to sell some of the company's assets to raise cash and settle problems with the Algerian government.

This is how the problems unfolded:

In May 2008 and again in July 2009, Orascom Telecom Algeria was informed that it was the subject of a tax audit in Algeria concerning the years 2005 to 2007. In June 2008 the audit commenced. The Algerian regulatory authorities sought a USD 596.6 tax adjustment claim for back taxes concerning the years 2005 to 2007. Yet Naguib Sawiris didn't release this information until the day of a World Cup qualifying match between Algeria and Egypt. Not surprisingly violence broke out.

Again, this is Naguib Sawiris' way of keeping secrets that also maintain the share price of Orascom. Not only did Naguib Sawiris hide the gigantic tax claim from his own shareholders, thereby breaching the law by manipulating the price of the company's stocks, but by releasing the information on the same day as the heated World Cup game of Egypt v. Algeria, he used the sporting battle to make it look like Algeria was waging a political and economic attack against Egypt, as a French-language article in El Watan pointed out.

Secrecy, lies, stock manipulation, and football. What will Naguib Sawiris do this season to celebrate the World Cup?

Naguib Sawiris: prospering under Mubarak’s Governement

A story in The Guardian emphasizes the connection between Naguib Sawiris business and politic backup, using President Mubarak as a sales man for Orascom.


As one of Egypt's wealthiest businessmen, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris has managed to succeed. It's well known in the mainstream media that Naguib Sawiris and his family have deep political connections to President Hosni Mubarak. As The Guardian reported, "The Sawiris family has continued to prosper over the past three decades under Hosni Mubarak's government." Naguib Sawiris profits both personally and commercially from his connection to Egypt's government elite.

To what extent are the Sawiris family and President Mubarak's family involved?

Mubarak's son, Alaa Mubarak, is a significant shareholder in Orascom and its affiliates, as well as a personal friend of Sawiris: privileged sources believe Alaa Mubarak's positive intervention on Naguib Sawiris's behalf is what helped Mobinil win the second GSM license in Egypt. In an interview with Al Arabiya News on July 18, 2004, Naguib Sawiris said he was "satisfied" with the Mubarak government. Mubarak must be satisfied, too. Because when Orascom encountered trouble with its Syrian venture, Mubarak went to Syria to try and settle Naguib Sawiris and Orascom's mess with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

The family ties don't stop at business. Naguib Sawiris, Alaa Mubarak, and his brother Nassef Mubarak are such close friends that they attended several football matches and stayed together in France during the 1998 World Cup. Naguib Sawiris' wife, Yousriya Loza Sawiris, serves as chairman and secretary general of the Sawiris Foundation, and President Mubarak's wife, Suzanne Mubarak, is on the board of directors.

At this point it wouldn't be surprising if someone called Naguib Sawiris and Mubarak answered the phone.