reposted from: Flats in Luxor: Anglo-Egyptian company outsourcing on ex-pats by Irina K The idea to build in Luxor matured in me over years and years, and the goal of the project was set as the like of the cultural center and a rest house not only for me but also for my numerous compatriots who being attired to the Ancient Egypt somehow can not get closer to the transcendental yet so mundane symbolism of Egypt for the simple reason that the mass tourism format does not allow that. It might be true that due to the many Bolshevik years the Russians we were deprived of academical research in Antiquities sphere (the fact that might generally explain the Hurghada sun-and-beach preferences), and yet studies in mythology and Ancient Egyptian culture are getting more and more popular in Russia today, and especially among younger people. Prior to Luxor I have been to Egypt many times, first at the age of 33 (how long ago that was, as now I am 46!), the same year in which I got my P D. and started to work at one of the Universities in Moscow. I first visited Taba, and after a year took a 2 weeks journey, comprising, in addition to the yet nearly pristine Hurghada, a percursory glimps of Cairo and Alexandria and (O Heavens!) a 4 nights Nile cruise. After that came Sharm, and Hurghada again. In Hurghada, in October 2007 I met Hassan Shaban, in the capacity of an assistant to his in-law Mahmoud Dawoui (the owner of the “Bella Vista” Hotel and of several housing projects in Hurghada). At that day I was looking to rent a dwelling for a couple of months, to get a more clear picture of the law and the rules of investment in Egypt. In the end, after a week of conversations, I shared with him the idea of the project. I asked him if he was married, he said not yet. I asked him what did he do for his living, and he said he had a piece of land in Luxor and was growing sugar cane, and that did not provide him a luxurious life but was enough to survive. That sounded honest and better than living off tourism, noble and humble. How wrong was I, cause all his big named relatives, as became clear later on when I was deep in the issue, made their fortune by sucking finance off European females, with some of them they were Orfi-married. Moreover, Hassan, as I know this now, was one of the professional providers of victims’ finance for them! When in Luxor Hassan brought me to the green sugar cane field in El Kom village where a small and beautiful one floor house was built. He said he was the owner of one feddan of land there, and inherited that piece from his father. The father, he shared, died suffering of poor health after the High Dam construction in Aswan, and the mother, being half Nubian by blood, stayed between Aswan and Sudan where the most of her relatives lived because nobody loved her, pure soul, there in Luxor where people were full of greediness for money. (After one year since we got acquainted his so to be Aswan mother died, so I had never had had the chance to see that woman who existed only in his imagination). About the other his relatives he initially said that they just let him be next, and Ali, Naggar, Fares, Abdourahim and Zeinab were not his brothers and sister but cousins, while the owner of the “Bella Vista” would be his half-brother who despised him for his being so poor and uininventive. To Jane Akshar I was introduced in the famous cafeteria opposite the Carter House in Qurna, the latter dropped: “Is she Russian?” and looked away showing a complete disgust to my personality. That was the first and the last time for many years that I saw plain Jane. Hassan added that her Orfi husband Mahmoud Jahlan and she were running a tourist business and had a big number of properties, and all the money for that were initially brought by Jane from Syria from where she escaped after the divorce with her husband. (If I only dared to check that information I the Internet I could find that he lied, but I was not interested to get a better knowledge of nosy persons and of anybody’s businesses, and too busy with my project). In January 2008, after I brought all my funds in American Traveellers Checks to Egypt we decided to be partners in the project, after all my long hesitations and mistrust I thought it would be better to share the managerial works and bargaining with the people. His part of investment, he said, should come after he would sell his land. Being a private feddan, it could, according to my estimates, cover the other half of needed investment and more, just in case. For the floor design Hassan brought me to the engineer Madian Mohsen, as that one, on account of Hassan, hade made the design of Jane Akshar’s buildings. The engineer was a nice guy, he came to the land by the car, checked the sun and the orientation and conjured exactly what I wanted it to be, open plan kitchens, spacious terraces on sunny sides (East-West orientation, to enjoy sunrise and sunset), and I paid him 8000 LE for 2 pages of printed out floor plans. When building I was renting a flat in Gezira, and my aunt came to visit me. The relatives of Hassan were cooking meat and rice for the construction workers, his brother Naggar supervising them when we were out of Luxor. After I invested the first 70 000 USD in building the 3 storeys main frame (the land, steel, cement and bricks) and asked Hassan for his part in the project he sneaked away: the offered price was too low, he would not like to lose what his father got in the Nasser times, and there would be no good buyer. So, to my rather unpleasant surprise I got that I had to finish the project on my own means (as I had other plans for the second half of my humble funds). The papers for the land as I saw them with the lawyer El T. Kahoul, contained my name, so there was nothing to worry about. Later came another trouble, as I demanded the water and the electricity to be registered to my name, which was outright rejected for the reason that “it was allowed to the locals only”, and, as we signed already the contract for the building as partners (with 50 by 50 shares) it would be most appropriate that he register those to his name. To my dismay his behavior completely changed, he started to rule me around and call me “siaha” (tourist). I understood I was in a way trapped with my project (most of the finances invested, but nothing is still finished) and my so to be partner was a professional liar, trying to suck off my funds to hs pocket and charging it double for every step. To bring him to the point was impossible, and neither my raising voice, nor reasoning or demonstrated distress, did not help. As thing went on, a couple of times I caught him stealing money from my bag (once in a restaurant). That put the end to any trust whatsoever. But I still believed that the contract for the building was enough to protect my rights, I did not know that behind my back there was a very well planned game with fake papers for the land. The finishing process was not smooth either, I wanted to make something of quality, while his priority was to put as much money as possible in his pocket, for which there was a good chance, as he was responsible for all the supply as well as works supervision (if not the finance, as the partner, he should have provided some management). The balance revealed that for most of the construction works my pocket was charged 40% plus that they were worth of. I did not know that not only I paid his trips to Sinai (which I did eagerly, to give him a presumably deserved holiday), fuel for the car (and the car itself, which he changed twice), but also (in my absence) his food and beverage at the “La Luna” restaurant, his buying an old sea boat and renting a disco at a crazy price at the “Bella Vista” (as I found out after he sold my building) and the food for all the family of Bedaweya, who turned out being his proper mother. To stay on a safe side, I choose to make a contract between us, giving me a bigger share in the building (as not only all the funds, but also knowledge and the concept were mine). He refused the idea of any contract between us outrightly! And only after some pressing of the lawyer Tayeb Kahoul, whom I asked to interfere to protect my interests, in December 2008 we signed the contract, but that one was giving us equal shares (any other proportion was refused outrightly), albeit depriving each other the right to sell the building without the other party’s consent. It was in the February 2010 when Hassan told me he would rent a chalet for my birthday in El Gouna and if I liked it there I could stay longer and even invite my mother. He left me there to the end that one day the owner the renting company appeared at my door asking for the rental payment and ready to summon the Security in case of my non-solvency. That way Hassan tried to put me on the black list and get rid of me, but I luckily escaped a bad end and following my inner voice called the lawyer El Tayeb Kahoul in Luxor. He still owed me pending documents. In a worried voice Kahoul told me I had to come back quickly and stay in my house. The next morning (I will remember that date forever, it was 29th of July, 2010) I arrived to Luxor by a night bus from Hurghada, Having come to my White House I discovered that the building changed the color from white to white and pink and that … Oh, no!… that my key did not fit the slot… As in a nightmare I started walking around, just to discover that all the backyard was fenced and some people were there digging a huge hole, evidently for a pool. After a couple of seconds a tall local man named Mohammed Abol Naga appeared as from the sky. I knew Abol Naga from the days of 2007 when I came with Hassan to Luxor searching for the land or a house to buy for my project and he offered me to buy a property in Gezira which I refused on unclear feeling that the place not safe. (My inner voice was right, as the offered house was demolished along with few others in 2009, when that part of Gezira was flatten down on the order of the local administration.) Shocked, I asked what he was doing around my building, and he informed me that I sold my property and signed the agreement. On my question to whom exactly the property was sold he mumbled something unclear and shut up. I called Hassan and he immediately sent in a red new Mitsoubishi car his brother Naggar (who was the boab to the building by that time, and to whom I paid for the security handsome 8000 LE in October 2009, sending money by Post from Hurghada). Together they brought me to the Luxor court where the lawyer handed me the copy of the proof of our signatures for the contract, Hassan all the time reassuring me that everything was OK and he just hired Abol Naga to build a swimming pool and make some necessary changes to the design. My mind struggled with the thought that I was cheated and effectively kicked out of my property. Having no place to stay in Luxor any more I returned to a rented flat in Hurghada, my mind boiling. The lawyer El Tayeb Kahoul, when I called him, shortly answered: “You have to stay in Your building!” and then…”You got trapped in a mafia net!” On my questions on how I could possibly stay in my building when there were men there and the door lock is changed, I got no answer, and in a few seconds the lawyer switched his phone off. After intensive consultations with the Russian Embassy and a couple of lawyers I was given a clear plan of action: to break the lock and to wait in the building for the local Police to come to drive me to the police station to make a report which would be followed by a criminal suit. Another Luxor lawyer (as Kahoull, evidently, disappeared from the scene and stopped answering my calls forever) demanded 15 000 LE to make a case, I did not have that sum in my pocket, while the Embassy did not stop to repeat that all the lawyers in Luxor were thieves. When I came back to Luxor again, the metal man and the carpenter procured by another local lawyer helped me into the building where I found all my possessions (clothes, documents, the international driving licence and the electrical equipment brought from Europe) taken from my roof apartment. I just managed to take the photos of the empty and broken shelves and the broken wood around some of the locks. ِ After half an hour (that was early and hot August morning) a strongly built man appeared and started to kick my assistants. He was, as later on I found out, the owner of the “Nile Valley” Hotel. Apparently he shown no surprise that some people intruded into his so to be property, and did not ask why did we do that. Instead, he yelled at us that we had to clear away, that he would not allow to break his house, and as he paid big money for it. In a somnabula state I finished my report in the Police station: it is not every day that one loses the fruit of one’s several years labor and all the money on a par with one’s dream and the beliefe in people). The report was made against Hassan (I knew only him as a traitor in my issue). That evening the new occupants of my building took me to the “Nile Valley” Hotel rooftop reatuarant where they put me through a brainwashing session. They also demanded my documents for the building, but those ones were for the moment still either with the lawyer, or in the court. The core of the brainwashing session was: 1) I had to forget about my property; 2) Hassan Shabban and his brothers were the dogs of Mahmoud Jahlan, whose buisness was to invite foreigners to build and after a building would be finished, to kick the European out and resell the property to the sponsor; 3) Hassan personally had signed to sell my building; 4) Hassan had advised Hamada Khalifa and Mohammed Abol Naga owner to put me on the street once I will try to get into the building. I asked them how they could buy the property knowing that they were buying from thieves! The answer was: “All the big business of the West Bank is mafia”. They departed, I was allowed several days to stay in the Nile Valley Hotel to follow my suit with the Prosecutor. Still, I could not realize what was the role of Mamoud Jahlan in the game. When I was still finishing the project I made a gesture of good will to visit their reputed Goubly flats (not knowing that his was indeed the biggest project on the West Bank and totally unaware of the fact that my small but beautifully conceived white house could be a thorn in somebody’s eye and a source of the future ill-got income). Those Goubly were all luxury and enormous space. Jahlan , after a week, paid the visit back to my unkempt construction site, to hear from his cousin Hassan the proud and reassuring “This is the building of Irina!” I was totally reassured that all was safe, and I was in part welcome to the “local club”. So, in August 2010, been freshly shocked by the fact of loss, I could not quite gather whom to suit for the cheating (Hassan told that he had nothing to do with the sale of my property, Mohammed Abol Naga exposed himself as the design manager of the property owned not by him, and the others pointed to the air without giving any details, and I believed Jahlan was too rich to be interested in cheating such a small nobody as me compared to him with his British wife, UK connections and Egyptology flair.) The lawyer El Tayeb Kahoul posed still another problem, repetitively refusing to give me the contract for the building as I made a proxy to his name to register that and our signatures in the Luxor court. In the last moment the lawyer who worked for me those days (I dismissed him after some time seeing he was making faux-pas and just waiting for more money in advance) pressed Kahoul to give me my contract (of which a photo is presented in this blog)I. To bring all in the open and get some documents from the mafia group I had to break into the building again to make another case. After one of such trials the Police once again brought the occupants to answer and those promised the Police Officer in Qurna police station to pass me the photocopies of the documents proving their rights. The idea was to check the quality of their documents and make the decision: to better leave my property (if it was a hopeless issue) or start the case to get my rights back. In vain I waited for the papers, and after another call I got a short answer: “You will not get any copies from me, do not call here again!” Then I started to ask the local people, and people said they saw all the mafia together for a meeting on the roof of my building. Not knowing the local Law (and most important, the prosecuting procedures) and wishing to be precise in naming the members of the crime for the next case, I made many trials to collect the necessary details on who, how, and by which agreements appropriated my building.I also changed several lawyers, all greedy for money and making faux-pas. The things were dragging on in the same clue, when in march 2011 my trails on the way to the truth were put on a better paved by another Luxor lawyer (one has to understand that most of the lawyers would be secretive about anything concerning the Law, and to squeeze any useful information from them is nearly impossible, they would better squeeze all your money from you). He simply said: “You name them all, and the Qurna police will make investigation”. So, in March 2011 (the Revolution being in a full swing) I made another case “against them all”. The police investigation in the case 1279 of 2011, based on the procured documents and interviews of the neighbors said: 1) Hassan Shaban Abd El Al Omr, 2) Hamdy Shaban Abd El Al Omr, 3) Bedaweya Hodary Mahoud (mother of the previous two); 4) Mahmoud Jahlan Abd El Al Omr, 5) Hamada Ahmed Khalifa, 6) Mohammed Abol Naga – one mafia group. In the first and the second readings in the court of Luxor these persons got 6 months of imprisonment for fraud and cheating (see the photo of the court decision in the blog ). In the meantime I had to find some witnesses who would confirmed that it was me who built the house, all the neighbors and my construction workers unwilling to participate, as nobody wanted problems with the mafia. Happily, the engineer Madian agreed to come to the court with my lawyer and witness that I ordered the design and that he was on the construction site to follow up (see the photo of his evidence from the court here). I started to better understand the tribal law and the fact that justice aside, the blood relations come first (and most of the people on the West Bank would be members of several remotely connected families). My findings of the local habits and traditions were generously supported by Hamada on the same day I encroached to my stolen property once again to provoke the necessary information on Mahmoud Jahlan. Hamada came in shouting (accompanied as always by Abol Naga) and screamed into my ear: “If once again You appear here around, I’ll bring the women of my house to beat you!”, the exercise, for which he had another occasion to practice. I called the Embassy again and they recommended me to let the criminal case being slowly dropped, for the reason the current judge just did not care to read the case and 6 months of imprisonment for the Luxor people would be same as a mosquito kiss. Also, with no Police at guard and hungry population anybody could kill me for 10 000 pounds. (One of those after-Revolution days 2 burglars, young men robbed a shop in Luxor killing a man who saw their being broken into the shop. They managed just to stole 2 packs of Chipsy and run away mortified by their own acting!) The documents obtained through the criminal cases reveal: https://facebook/pages/White-House-in-El-Tod-Bayrat-West-Bank-Luxor/1410815725820699?id=1410815725820699&sk=photos_stream 1.Contract #1. My building was sold by Hamdy Shaban Abd El Al Omr (the brother of my so-to-be business partner Hassan Shaban Abd El Aal Omr) to their cousin Mahmoud Jahlan Abd El Al Omr on the day 28/01/2010 when I was staying in my building (I all the time occupied the domed roof for its views and the palatial high ceilings). The witness to the deal (as per Contract) was my business partner Hassan Shaban. The price of sell was 450 000 LE. 2. Contract #2. On the 5/5/2010 (after 4 months of the first sell) Mahmoud Jahlan resold my building to Hamada Ahmed Khalifa for the price of 3000 LE, closed deal between themselves with no witness. (Lately I was informed by one of the lawyers of the businessmen that my building was resold at 750 000 LE, having left in the pocket of Jahlan a nice commission of 300 000 LE). 3. The contract for the land under the building to my name was stolen by the same very lawyer El Tayeb Kahoul. He, behind my back, applied to register the land under the building to the name of the brother of my business partner (the step being not finished as the brothers decided to sell my house before the registration of the land). 4. Having bought the building only (without the land itself) Hamada Khalifa and his lawyer made another trick: namely, asked the judge to spread the rights for the building to the land, the contracts for the land themselves were multiple sell dated back to 2007 in the names of Mahmoud Hashim, Bedaweya Hodary Mahmoud and Hamdy Shaban (signed as it occurred in the same hand on the forms which could be bought in a local stationary, and never registered in the court). And in the period when I was begging for the copies of the deals the property was registered in Shara Karey (local Notary) to the name of the new occupant Hamada Khalifa. During my investigations, local lawyers and regular fellahin informed me that before me there had been many European women in the lives of Abd El Al Omr family male members, all of them left substantial sums on the West Bank, and that the family operates as a mature organization with a clear distribution of functions. There is the so called “kabeer” or the secret sponsor of the mafia group, Mahmoud Jahlan (Abd el Al Omr) married to the UK citizen Jane Akshar. There are also providers of the secret sponsor bound to him by close family ties: Hassan. Hamdy, Fares, Naggar and Ali Shaban Abd el Al Omr. The providers involve foreigners to build, and when a building is half finished it is taken from a foreigner by force or by a cunning scheme and sold at a half-price to the sponsor. The sponsor then resells the object to another Egyptian (the client) from El Tod or keeps it as a part of the renting company Flats in Luxor. In my case the clients of the sponsor was the Dutch-Egyptian couple running the “Nile Valley” Hotel. In 2012 many could see another cheated ex-pat beatind the dust in Luxor: Martin from Holland, shoeewed out of his property by Ali Shaban and given a shelter by the lame Fares Shaban after whom he usually is walking as his slave along the East Bank streets. Local people informed me that his property was bought by Mahmoud Jahlan either. My building now (with a changed outer and inner design) is put on sale (See nilevalley.nl/Appartments_for_rent_in_Luxor_at_Nile_Valley_Hotel.html To save prospective victims both financial losses and eventual embarassement. I made a disclaimer saying that the property is illegally repossessed 4321.co.il/property/ad138533.aspx A British acquaintances of mine, a couple with whom we met in 2009 when I was still building, bumped into my property being offered on the Nile Valley web-site. Looking for something to buy on the West Bank for the long and happy years of retirement ahead they got in contact with the current occupants of the White House and heard from them an interesting version of the White Houses’ story. In the story I am portrayed as a girl (I have to say thanks to my genes for looking several years younger than my passport age, but I can hardly look like a girl at 46), 2) as a girl, cheated not by a well organized group but by a boy, who, after taking my money, disappeared (firstly, my business partner, even if he was a rogue, was not a boy when we met, neither he is a boy today, at the age of 38; secondly, he happily lives in El Tod, West Bank, and his brother who sold my property with his full assistance, resides in the UK, being married to a UK citizen and having a child); 3) as a girl who lost the case (the case was not lost, the judge issued the verdict that my rights should be back by the Civil court). In the conclusion of this story let me wish the company involved in the games for finance, power and further recognition in the fields of Tourism and Egyptology to continue being a visionary multi-millionares (with the property consisting of 27 apartment worth $3 mln. as they proudly state on the web-site flatsinluxor.co.uk/about-flats-in-luxor/ I also wish them to continue helping ex-pats at the newly formed Luxor Committee as volunteers. And may their multy-level company with 2 official employees and many well-coveted providers of finance and set of properties recently augmented by the new “Tahrir Villa” (partly, I guess, being invested through the 300 000 LE gained by reselling the White House to another business star, the front line famous hotel), prosper! The more so that this company, as is stated at the Responsible Travel web-site selling eco travel (responsibletravel/accommodation/1030/luxor-holiday-apartments-egypt) take “electricity all from Aswan dam” built by Soviet slaves who, of course do deserve only to be cheated and looked down (because they are Russian), the more so that they evidently were enjoying to work for the international elite for free. I called Jane Akshar prior the first meeting of ex-pats with the newly appointed Luxor adminstration, inviting her for a private meeting. She refused to meet, on the pretext should be hurrying to meet the Governor. After a dozen minutes there was a ring on my mobile, she expressed the desire what was the reason of my sms to her. I told her it would be better to meet tet-a-tet and together find the words for that. I heard: “No-no-no-no-no! You’d better tell me now!” I could not find it possible for me to be so mean as the to say her, without seeing her face, that her Orf-husband was a scam. I understood that she ‘d better go to ACE to write a blog on charities for animals that dare to find out the truth how elaborate deeds ofher sicilian-type in-laws (although only Orfi in-laws) could send someone to death without a knife or a gun. By mere tricks of wits and a sign on a sheet of paper. irin2u.wordpress/2013/11/23/tthe-story-of-the-white-house-being-built-stolen-and-resold-by-luxor-west-bank-mafia/
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 16:20:51 +0000
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