RABAT // After going bankrupt, Omar Abed held out through the hot, humid Algerian summer before the heart attack finally struck.
"I had just come home and said hello to my family when I felt my chest tighten," said Mr Abed, a merchant in the Algerian capital, Algiers. "Until then I hadn't told my wife that our money was in El Khalifa Bank."
Mr Abed was among the victims of Rafik Khalifa, an exiled former tycoon brought low by a banking scandal that cost hundreds of thousands of Algerians their savings and jobs. Once the glamorous star of Algeria's emergence from a decade of civil war in the 1990s, Khalifa has become a symbol of the widespread corruption that still plagues the country.
This month authorities in Britain are set to decide on Khalifa's extradition to Algeria, a move his lawyer, Anna Rothwell, said he would appeal. For now, the spotlight is back on the man who conned a nation.
Khalifa's profile rose as Algeria's government subdued Islamist insurgents in the 1990s and liberalised its economy to make up for lost growth. Within a few years, he had used capital from his family-owned pharmacy to construct a vast business empire.
Venturing abroad with European-based TV stations and the launch of Khalifa Airways, Khalifa took to courting the likes of Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve and Sting at his villa on the Mediterranean.
The cornerstone of his empire was El Khalifa Bank, which offered up to 17-per-cent interest to more than one million clients. That appealed both to many public companies and to Algerians like Mr Abed, the merchant, who put his money in El Khalifa Bank in 1998 in the hope of increasing it.
But as Khalifa shot to fame and fortune, speculation grew that his success hinged on working political connections and dodging rules.
"If you look at Khalifa's vertiginous climb through Algeria's economy and society, it's clear he must have had some support," said Jon Marks, a North Africa analyst and the head of Cross-Border Information, a British risk-assessment firm.
"Algerians started asking questions," said Faycal Metaoui, a political columnist for El Watan, an independent newspaper. "How did an unknown become so rich so quickly? Where did the money come from?"
Unknown to Algerians, funds were being illegally siphoned from El Khalifa Bank to fuel the runaway expansion of Khalifa's companies. In November 2002, suspicious Algerian regulators restricted the bank's money transfers. The next February, three Khalifa group businessmen were caught at Algiers' airport en route to Paris carrying suitcases stuffed with US$2.9 million (Dh10.7m).
Within months, El Khalifa Bank had folded, 20,000 had lost their jobs and Khalifa had fled his Paris office for Britain, which then had no extradition treaty with Algeria. The two countries swiftly signed one, and Algeria launched an investigation that implicated high-ranking state officials. More than a dozen suspects were convicted in 2007, including Khalifa, who was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. He is currently held in London's Wandsworth Prison while Algeria's extradition request is considered.
The affair jolted Algerian authorities, who have since unleashed investigations into suspect businesses and government agencies, and abolished immunity for officials. Last October, the president called for the creation of a state corruption watchdog. "The government is now committed to a major, wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign," Mr Marks said. But observers "are looking to see whether there's concrete evidence the political-economic system has changed".
Algerians worry that despite the clampdown, big fish like Khalifa can still use political influence to slip through the net, Mr Metaoui said, noting that Algerian law calls for Khalifa to be retried if his extradition goes through. That fear is shared by Mr Abed, who recovered from his heart attack in 2003 to head the Collective of El Khalifa Bank Fraud Victims. He wants former officials at Algeria's central bank punished for what he calls their failure to police Khalifa.
Two key suspects convicted in the Khalifa affair, Abdelouahab Keramane, a former governor of the Bank of Algeria, and his brother Abdenour, a former industry minister, have fled abroad, claiming charges against them are politically motivated.
The government insured El Khalifa Bank accounts by up to 600,000 Algerian dinars (Dh30,000), "but that's much less than what was lost", Mr Abed said.
Meanwhile, authorities are thinking twice about the economic deregulation that opened the door to Khalifa. State banks and public investment have returned to dominance.
"The Algerian leadership can point to Khalifa as an example of the dangers of a free market," Mr Marks said. "But the market he represented was a peculiarly Algerian one, and had little to do with principles that conventional economists would recognise."
jthorne@thenational.ae
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
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Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
PRISCILLA
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How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Company profile
Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space
Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)
Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)
Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution)
Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space
Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Two-litre%20four-cylinder%20turbo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E235hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nine-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh167%2C500%20(%2445%2C000)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The%20Specs
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
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