Swiss to unfreeze $430M as Egypt money laundering probe ends

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss prosecutors are concluding without any charges a decade-long investigation into alleged money laundering and organized crime linked to late former President Hosni Mubarak’s circles in Egypt and will release some 400 million Swiss francs ($430 million) frozen in Swiss banks. The office of the Swiss attorney general said information received from Egyptian authorities wasn’t sufficient to back up the claims that emerged in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 that felled Mubarak’s three-decade rule. A Swiss investigation into claims that banks in Switzerland were used to squirrel away ill-gotten funds had originally targeted 14 people, including Mubarak’s two sons, as well as dozens of other individuals and entities that had assets totaling some 600 million francs frozen.