Egypt’s Prosecutor Orders Arrest of Agriculture Officials Accused of Stealing $60 Million

A farmer harvests wheat on Qalyub farm in the El-Kalubia governorate, northeast of Cairo, Egypt May 1, 2016.
REUTERS/AMR ABDALLAH DALSH

Egypt’s Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek has issued a number of arrest warrants after an investigation into wheat corruption revealed EGP 533 million (USD 60 million) were stolen from state funds, state-owned Al-Ahram Online reported.

Sadek has also banned the suspects from travel and ordered their funds to be frozen.

According to the prosecution, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture along with silo owners forged documents to pocket EGP 533 million out of a total budget of EGP 621 million as a price for the amount of wheat that were reportedly procured.

The investigations revealed that some officials falsified lists of farmers and landowners to claim wheat procurement and that the alleged landowners used their lands for farming wheat.

The government launched an inspection in June after the reported figures of wheat procurement stirred suspicions of corruption. Egypt’s parliament formed a fact-finding committee later that month to investigate the issue.