Gang implicated in fraudulent loans to be tried

CAIRO – 19 July 2017: A gang of six businesspeople implicated in fraudulent loans to steal LE 19.7 million ($1.1 million) from the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) were referred to Criminal Court by the Public Prosecution on Wednesday.

The defendants forged supplying contracts between their companies and the hospitals of Mansoura, Mansoura University, and Zagazig University.

The fraud entailed presenting non-existent projects and contractual relations between the companies and the hospitals.

The first defendant called Ayman, the head of the board of a trade and industry company, forged a contract between his institution and those hospitals to supply food in return for LE 60 million ($3.35 million).

The second and third defendants signed along with the first defendant two contracts of credit facility and solidarity guarantee with the bank.

The third defendant named Walaa is the partner of the first defendant in the same company.

The second defendant named Khaled is the owner of an imports and exports company.
The fourth defendant is named Nafea. The fifth defendant is named Abdel Khalek. The sixth defendant is named Ashraf.

The companies of Khaled, Nafea, Abdel Khalek, and Ashraf were falsely enlisted as suppliers to Ayman’s company and thus received a great portion of the loan, while the rest was transferred to Ayman’s company.

The lawyer of the Legal Affairs Department at NBE testified that Ayman was granted a credit facility on the basis of those forged supply contracts as a guarantee, and that the fraud unraveled when the company failed to pay back, and the hospitals’ administrations were queried.

This information was also confirmed by the head of the general manager of credit checks at NBE.

All three hospitals’ administrations denied signing such contracts.

The head of the Credit Department at NBE testified that contracts were presented by Ayman personally or by an agent of his company.