Investigations by the state prosecution in the money laundering case of Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman, former housing minister under Mubarak, revealed that in 2007 a company he registered abroad received a transfer of US$7 million from business tycoon Hesham Talaat Mostafa, who is awaiting retrial for the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim.
Suleiman said that the company was established after he left office, and that the transfer was in return for a plot of land Mostafa had bought.
Mostafa said he asked Suleiman to intervene because he felt the price of the land he wanted to annex to his hotel was too high. “He asked for that money as a commission and promised not to raise the price more than $150 million,” he said.
Suleiman then managed to convince the owner of the land, Nasser Abdel Latif, to sell it for US$110 million.
State prosecution is investigating similar money laundering and corruption cases involving officials from the former regime.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
