CAIRO: The Egyptian government has asked a Swiss law firm to take the necessary legal measures at the Swiss Federal Court to uncover the details of bank accounts of former Egyptian ministers and officials that were frozen by the Swiss government last Monday. State-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported that the head of the Illicit Gains Authority, Assem el-Gohary, has hired a Swiss law firm to take the necessary legal measures to uncover the bank accounts details, which are believed to hold millions of dollars of embezzled funds. This came in light of an announcement by the Swiss government, which revealed that the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak possesses an estimated 410 million Swiss francs in a bank account, which was frozen earlier by the Swiss Government. El-Gohary said other amounts of money belonging to 15 former Egyptian officials, including the family of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, are being sought. He noted that the Illicit Gains Authority had requested the freezing of the foreign accounts of the 15 former officials, including former Minister of Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid, former senior NDP member and businessman Ahmed Ezz, former minister of housing Ahmed el-Maghrabi and former minister of finance Botrous Ghali. The Swiss government said it has identified potential assets to be frozen worth 830 million Swiss francs (nearly $1billion) belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the ousted presidents of Egypt and Tunisia Zine el-dine Ben Ali.. Switzerland has ordered banks and other financial institutions to freeze possible assets belonging to the three men and their key supporters to prevent the funds from being secretly withdrawn. The Swiss government said Tunisia and Egypt have already started legal proceedings to claim the assets, a report by The Guardian newspaper stated. The Swiss government sent diplomatic cables to Tunisia and Egypt in late March explaining they must submit evidence so authorities can decide if the offenses are punishable in Switzerland. BM
