Naguib Sawiris: The Hypocrite and the Dictator

In the Arab world, the reputation of businessmen often comes down to his relationship with dictators and corrupt political leaders.



This is particularly true in the case of telecom operators pushing for contracts in war-torn Iraq. Whereas most Western entrepreneurs were frightened to enter the region, let alone set up business there, Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding, visited Baghdad numerous times after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Soon, Naguib Sawiris' $160 million investment in Iraqna, an Orascom subsidiary, became Iraq's leading cellular network, and gained profits of $30 million to $40 million a year, less about $2 million a month in security costs. Naguib Sawiris was different than other people in the Arab world, though, because he supposedly "supported the overthrow of Hussein in Iraq," the media widely reported.



What the media didn't widely report is that one of Orascom Telecom's shareholders bribed Iraqi officials to support its winning bid for one of three GSM licenses awarded in Iraq in 2003, according to a May 2004 Memo authored by John Shaw, U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security.



Shaw discovered that Nadhim Auchi, a controversial British-born Iraqi billionaire, had an equity interest in Orascom's bid and engineered the disbursement of bribes to leading Iraqi officials who determined which company would win the bid. Auchi was quoted in news outlets as being one of Saddam Hussein’s former "financiers" and also confirmed he was a minority shareholder in Orascom, as news outlets like MSNBC reported.




Auchi isn't the only dangerous Orascom shareholder. Ironically, Forbes, which features Naguib Sawiris on its billionaire's list, also reported that the radical Islam group Hamas released financials showing it held "big stakes in the Cairo-based cell phone high-flier Orascom Telecom."

Naguib Sawiris: a moral pygmy attacking free press

Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris has an impressive track record of censorship, as pointed out by the Committee to Protect Journalists.





“While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies” Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

This quote from highly-respected (and Holocaust survivor) Tom Lantos applied to Yahoo, accused of sharing personal information with the Chinese government to help them put dissidents to jail. But Egypt has its own kind of “moral pygmy”: Naguib Sawiris



If you're wondering why you've never come across any negative news about Egypt telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris, that's because journalists who attempt to expose his corrupt business deals end up with prison sentences.



Of course it's no secret that Naguib Sawiris uses his telecom services in Egypt (Orascom owned Mobinil) to give personal information about its users to the government and is also involved in accepting gracious government bribes. But if Naguib Sawiris has anything to do with it, you won't hear a word about that.



Naguib Sawiris is extremely well-liked by the Egyptian press--if you can call journalists who aren't allowed to tell the truth "the press." He portrays himself as a liberal good guy, which you'd think means he values free speech and objective reporting. Yet what happens when free speech includes exposing information about how Naguib Sawiris maneuvers his million-dollar deals? Let's take a look.



In March 2002, a Cairo court sentenced Adel Hammouda and Essam Fahmy of the independent weekly Sawt al-Umma to six months in prison each for defaming Naguib Sawiris, as the Committee to Protect Journalist points out. Just what did Hammouda, a reporter, and Fahmy, the paper's publisher, do to receive this sentence? They wrote articles accusing Naguib Sawiris and his telecommunications company, Orascom Telecom, of financial misconduct. The journalists charged that the Sawiris family, with the help of Bank Misr, used false bank certificates to raise Orascom's capital by 400 million Egyptian pounds (about USD 90 million at the time). According PEN World Association of Writers, each was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 500 Egyptian pounds. The conviction was overturned on appeal, but Naguib Sawiris and his family filed a total of 30 lawsuits against the paper.



Like Russia and China, Egypt has a nasty censorship track record for shutting down journalists and bloggers who critique government-backed puppets like Naguib Sawiris. Journalists who dare to criticize President Hosni Mubarak (whose family--surprise surprise--has close ties with Naguib Sawiris) and other members of the Egyptian ruling elite are silenced, fined, and buried beneath a heap of lawsuits, despite the fact that Egypt is full of journalists who are well equipped to expose lawless businessmen like Naguib Sawiris.



As CPJ's (Committee to Protect Journalists) executive director Ann Cooper put it: "Imposing prison sentences on journalists for covering stories of clear public interest is outrageous." The cases against Hammouda and Fahmy should be dropped immediately."

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."