Report: Business Tycoon Salah Diab faces new corruption charges

CAIRO – 7 September 2020: A list of new charges were drawn against Business Tycoon Salah Diab over buying a factory for wood products for less than its actual price by L.E. 58 million. 

 

Businessman Salah Diab, who owns La Poire sweets factories, was arrested for the second time earlier this month to be interrogated over a number of financial charges and unlicensed buildings. Diab was handed a 15-day detention pending investigation into multiple corruption charges, as he owes the state L.E. 11,135 billion in overdue taxes. 

 

He is also accused of seizing a state-owned plot of land, and building factories without a license. 

 

The first time Diab was arrested was in 2015, when he and his son was charged with possessing unlicensed arms and bullets, but they were cleared by a Giza criminal court in 2017. The firms owned by Diab were charged of committing financial violations years ago, and he was offered a settlement. Yet, no settlements have been achieved until present time.

 

 

 

New charges

 

The new charges were filed in a police report by Hassan Mandour Abdel Aziz, a former production manager at the Suez Canal Company for Wood Products (Queen.)

 

The police report said that Businessman Salah Diab, during 2013, purchased Queen Factory for wood products, which was owned then by Suez Canal Company for Wood Products, for L.E. 12.8 million. Diab colluded with bank officials, according to the report, as the factory’s actual price at that time was estimated at more than L.E. 70 million.

 

Diab is also accused of seizing a land allocated to annexes of a mosque in the industrial zone in Basateen, and building on the land in violation of the law. 

 

 

 

List of accusations  

 

et collects all accusations drawn against Diab in the below lines:

 

- He is accused, as the owner of La Poire Company, of collusion with officials at Suez Canal Furniture Company, an Egyptian joint stock company affiliated with the governmental Suez Canal Bank, and purchasing Queen Furniture Factory for less than its purchasing value, which is considered a waste of public money. 

 

- Seizing a plot of land designated for a mosque after purchasing it from the Suez Canal Company with a preliminary contract, despite the fact that its original owner did not sell it. 

 

- Trespassing a part of a land (500 meters) allocated for a mosque, and establishing a building on it.

 

- Illegal building on a street “public utility” of an area of 3,000 square meters, and constructing a one-story concrete building on it.

 

- Conducting violations in the buildings at the factory, where fines for those violations are estimated at L.E. 10 million. 

 

- Resuming the work of a 60-meter long concrete wall, in violation of Law 119 of 2008, which was previously suspended by resolution No. 426 of 2019. 

 

- Evasion of completing the real estate tax for La Poire factory, estimated at L.E. 5 million. 

 

- Failure to notify real estate taxes for the entire lands where the factories were built, to evade payment of real estate taxes. 

 

- The total value of the seized lands is L.E. 60 million.

 

 

A committee was formed from Real Estate taxes authority, which proved the existence of these violations. 

 

A report on the incident is being filed and to be presented before the public prosecution.