THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — As Egyptians turned their anger on symbols of the state late last month, torching police stations along with the headquarters of President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party, they reserved a special hatred for a garish building with black tinted windows in an upscale neighborhood, setting fire to it three times.
It belongs to a steel tycoon and ruling party insider named Ahmed Ezz, a close friend and confidante of Mr. Mubarak’s son Gamal. For many years, Mr. Ezz has represented the intersection of money, politics and power, controlling two-thirds of the steel market, leading the budget committee as a member of Parliament and serving as an officer and loyal lieutenant in the governing party. Public resentment at the wealth acquired by the politically powerful helped propel the uprising already reshaping the contours of power along the Nile.
Mr. Ezz’s world has come undone. He is treated as a liability by an old guard intent on saving itself from fed-up and furious protesters. He is under investigation on suspicion of corruption. His assets have been frozen and his right to travel taken away. He has denied accusations of corruption in the past, and his location was not known Sunday. Now his name is part of the derisive chants in Tahrir Square, a symbol of all that was wrong with Mr. Mubarak’s government.
“Ahmed Ezz sucks the blood of the people,” said Osama Mohamed Afifi, a student who joined the protesters in the square on Sunday. “He is the only man who can sell steel in all of Egypt, and he sells it for much more than if we could buy steel from someone else like China.”
Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt has long functioned as a state where wealth bought political power and political power bought great wealth. While hard facts are difficult to come by, Egyptians watching the rise of a moneyed class widely believe that self-dealing, crony capitalism and corruption are endemic, represented in the public eye by a group of rich businessmen aligned with Gamal Mubarak, the president’s son, as well as key government ministers and governing party members.
“The people around Gamal became the wealthiest group in the country,” said Hala Mustafa, a political scientist who quit the ruling party years ago, saying it was not committed to political reform. “They monopolized everything.” >>> Kareem Fahim, Michael Slackman and David Rohde | Sunday, February 06, 2011
DAILY NEWS EGYPT: Steel Tycoon Responds to Accusations of Monopoly: CAIRO: Steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz has been in the media spotlight — or more accurately, under the microscope — this past week as he confronted rumors surrounding his wealth, accusations of monopolizing the local steel market, and what many see as his conflicting positions as both businessman and influential politician. >>> Tamim Elyan and Amira Salah-Ahmed | Wednesday, June 25, 2008
