Ashraf Shaaban Listed as Global Legal Head of National Bank of Egypt

As noted here, according to a newly unsealed passage of Beryl Howell’s September 19, 2018 opinion denying an Egyptian Bank’s motion to quash a subpoena in an investigation into a suspected $10M payment to Donald Trump, Ashraf Shaaban is the Group Legal Counsel for the Egyptian-owned bank in question.

According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Shaaban is the Global Legal Head of the National Bank of Egypt.

The website for Mona Zulficar’s lawfirm also includes this complimentary comment from Shaaban:

“They have a very solid reputation in the Egyptian market and they provide world class quality legal services to their clients and have at the same time very strong business orientation in handling such legal matters.” – Mr. Ashraf Shaaban – Group General Counsel – National Bank of Egypt

That suggests that the bank suspected of funneling $10 million to Trump at a key point in the 2016 election is the National Bank of Egypt.

I think I’ll reup this annotated rant Trump went on when Bob Menendez was indicted for allegedly taking bribes from Egypt.

25 replies
  1. Playdohglobe says:

    Thanks Marcy.. you must be exhausted.. Keeping up with GOP’s leader, a crime-infested DJT Inc, convicted Felon, Adjudicated rapist and Leading Republican Candidate for President of the USA is a truly daunting task.

    AMAZES me since 2015 time frame, MSM still does not address DJT in every headline as a crime lord. With the Heritage foundation and the likes of Leonard Leo bribing SCJ, it just seems to work out in the courts for the power brokers who want this criminal enterprise to continue.

    IT is wild how much damaging info is out there and still, MSM treats the Republican party of today like a serious political party instead of the criminal enterprise that your work and many others expose daily.

    IANAL- I guess it is not shocking that our Justice system can’t function well with the corruption level and rate of corruption events of today. Like a wild West movie that is out of control..with a few souls trying to contain the anarchy.

    • John B.*^ says:

      Yes, agree…we live in extremely corrupt times, for sure but I do wonder what comparable times were like in our 250 year history…

      • Fancy Chicken says:

        John B.-

        If you would like to revisit a time when our Congress was filled with members publicly shilling for a policy of international isolationism as Germany overran Europe while promoting a move towards authoritarianism at home, funded and supported by Nazi Germany and how our Country was nearly overtaken by the America First movement, I highly recommend Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra”.

        It covers the time leading up to WWII when Nazi Germany was actively involved in not just courting Congressional members, but writing their speeches and using the prerogative of Congress being able to use the US Post Office free of charge to mail pro-Nazi and authoritarian propaganda out of Congressional offices.

        Not to mention the devastating bombings and plots of American citizens emulating Nazis.

        I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Trumpers use the “America First” slogan while promoting Trump’s authoritarian dystopia and isolationist foreign policy while using language and manipulation out of the Nazi playbook.

        Someone in Trump’s camp knows this history and are deliberately referencing it I believe.

        While we as a country got through that time by the skin of our teeth, it still inspires hope that we can move through this moment in time better equipped to deal with a similar threat to our Democracy.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Congress has often been for sale. It’s decades of subsidies for the nascent railroad industry, for example, during and after the Civil War, were lubricated with frequent, minutely graded payments to MOC.

        • Greg Hunter says:

          They owned all the State Legislatures prior to the 1920s or the rich would not have blessed us with the so-called Progressive Era Amendments – 16th, 17th and 18th.

        • Playdohglobe says:

          History may have unraveled in a corrupt fashion for the USA in the past.

          I posit that this time is different. With this GOP and this former President, a career criminal supported by an entire national news media, an entire aristocracy of mega rich is different.

          Dictator on day 1. Suspend the Constitution. overthrow free and fair elections. Out right fascism. Round up and detain 11 million people with no due process, etc. Convicted Felon and an adjudicated rapist. A justice system failing to apply laws, Incompetent corrupt judges on the Supreme Court, 2020 vote total for GOP = 70 plus million Americans supporting this type of thinking is different type of corruption.
          See Abe Fortas – the system worked in the past.

          Fortas later resigned from the Court after a controversy involving his acceptance of $20,000 from financier Louis Wolfson while Wolfson was being investigated for insider trading.

          Example of more differences..and the system failing to hold the line against today’s GOP.

          The entire Obama/Biden administration:
          8 years
          0 indictments
          0 convictions

          Donald Trump as President:
          43 individuals from the Trump admin, campaign, and org have been criminally indicted!!! With 19 CONVICTIONS (so far).
          Indicted: Donald J. Trump
          Indicted: Allen Weisselberg CFO
          Indicted: Paul Manafort, campaign chief
          Indicted: Steve Bannon, senior advisor
          Indicted: Roger Stone, senior advisor
          Indicted: Rick Gates, campaign mgr
          Indicted: George Nader
          Indicted: Mike Flynn
          Indicted: Peter Navarro
          Indicted: Michael Roman
          Indicted: George Papadopolous
          Indicted: Rudy Giuliani, attorney
          Indicted: John Eastman, attorney
          Indicted: Jeffrey Clark, attorney
          Indicted: Sidney Powell, attorney
          Indicted: Ken Chesebro, attorney
          Indicted: Boris Epshteyn, attorney
          Indicted: Michael Cohen, attorney
          Indicted: James Troupis, attorney
          Indicted: Jenna Ellis, attorney
          Indicted: Sam Patten
          Indicted: Elliot Broidy
          Indicted: Richard Pinedo
          Indicted: Tom Barrack
          Indicted: Alex van der Zwaan
          Indicted: Lev Parnas
          Indicted: Igor Frumen
          Indicted: Waltine Nuata
          Indicted: Carlos de Oliveira
          Convicted: Donald J. Trump
          Convicted: Allen Weisselberg, CFO
          Convicted: Paul Manafort
          Convicted: Steve Bannon
          Convicted: Roger Stone
          Convicted: Rick Gates
          Convicted: Mike Flynn
          Convicted: Peter Navarro
          Convicted: George Papadopolous
          Convicted: Jenna Ellis, attorney
          Convicted: Sidney Powell, attorney
          Convicted: Ken Chesebro, attorney
          Convicted: Michael Cohen, attorney
          Convicted: Sam Patten
          Convicted: Elliot Broidy
          Convicted: Richard Pinedo
          Convicted: Alex van der Zwaan
          Convicted: Lev Parnas
          Convicted: Igor Frumen
          Found liable: Trump University (fraud)
          Found liable: Trump Foundation (fraud)
          Found liable: Trump Org (fraud)
          Found liable: Donald J Trump (sexual abuse, defamation, business fraud).
          Russians indicted by Republican special counsel Robert Mueller (because the Russians were helping Trump in the ’16 election):
          Indicted: Konstantin Kilimnik
          Indicted: Maria Valeryevna Butina
          Indicted: Yevgeny Prigozhin
          Indicted: 12 Russian GRU officers
          Indicted: “Internet Research Agency”.

          Donald Trump and his administration: Over 335 criminal charges… and counting!
          (updated 6/24)

        • Matt Foley says:

          To Playdohglobe June 24, 2024 at 8:17 am

          Thanks for that handy list. Throw on all the felons Trump pardoned, e.g., Jared’s daddy, Dinesh D’Souza, Pirro’s husband.

  2. Matt Foley says:

    Yeah but have you seen James Comer’s flowchart between China and Biden? Only 5 degrees of separation! And the solid line arrows between boxes proves it was laundered.

    That was sarcasm, in case any MAGAs are reading this.

  3. Old Rapier says:

    This whole secret loan for Egypt thing is so ripe with Conspiracy theorism, that being usually 5 or 7 ‘facts’ strung together, that it always sets off my alarm bells. Really, $10 million dollars is chump change.

    • Clare Kelly says:

      Re: “ Really, $10 million dollars is chump change.” ~Old Rapier

      See:
      “Trump’s suggestion that the judge in this case, Justice Juan Merchan, is linked to Biden rests on a $15 contribution Merchan made to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.”

      “As we’ve reported before, Federal Election Commission records show three small donations from Merchan to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, in July 2020. “

      https://www.factcheck.org/2024/05/trumps-repeated-claims-on-his-new-york-hush-money-trial/

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      If you think $10 million is chump change, you’re been paying too much attention to Trump’s spiel about how rich he is.

      Most of his assets are not liquid. Many of those that are liquid are subject to prior liens or minimum liquidity requirements. He hates to spend his own money on anything. His 2016 campaign was often on the ropes. His candidacy was questionable for much of the period. He had a lot of legal troubles then, too, and lawyers had to be paid. That $10 million, if it was paid, may have kept his campaign afloat at a critical time.

      • Rayne says:

        “Chump change” could be exactly what was needed plus “handling fee” for a discrete expense — like a specific lobbying project, or a range of ad buys, or a particular property for laundering, or several hundred golf resort memberships. It’s compartmentalization, to limit exposure if uncovered to that which the money touches.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Nicely stated. Any one payment is only part of an obscured whole.

          Often using the same number for payments to him could obscure tracing an individual payment or tracking total payments from the same or a related source. The latter could obscure whether Trump was inordinately dependent on one or more sugar daddies, as well as the potential notoriety or illegality of relying on that sugar daddy.

    • Sherrie H says:

      How much do prosecutors allege Menendez received? Not a whatabout, just pointing out some folks can be bought pretty cheap. At any rate, if it’s illegal, like a bribe or a foreign campaign donation, it doesn’t much matter if you consider it mere pocket change.

  4. Sussex Trafalgar says:

    Like Russia, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, Egypt is an organized crime syndicate that masquerades as a nation state.

    These organized crime syndicates control Trump financially and ideologically.

    • LaMissy! says:

      I used to think it was hyperbole when Sarah Kendzior referred to the “transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government.” no more. She suffers the fate of all Cassandras.

  5. Brad Cole says:

    The intersectionality of it all. Bibi stumps for Trump back in 2015, Trump sells the Tel Aviv ambassador’s residence to Adelson, who launders PRC money in Macau, Egypt can’t seem to shut down the Rafah tunnels in the Sinai, the IDF ignores the Gazan threat, Putin catches a break with distraction in Gaza, Trump Tower Baku financed with IRGC cash, Londongrad falling down (?), Kushner’s $3.6B (and counting) payoff from SA, on and on.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      That fits with Trump’s claim that, in his words, it will be Joe Biden who gets a shot in the ass, to give him a drug high to keep him awake for the debate. LOL.

      I’m still a proponent that both candidates be checked for earwigs before the debate. Biden has demonstrated he can handle a debate with aplomb. Trump, on the other hand, can attack and bumble and make false claims until the cows come home. But he hasn’t a prayer of saying anything intelligent without help.

      • stillscoff says:

        Trump doesn’t have to say anything remotely intelligent. A few insults and lies will suffice for his followers. Anything more than that would only confuse them.

        I said it in 2015 when he announced his candidacy. We’re looking at a mob boss running for the presidency.

    • grizebard says:

      Indeed so. They have no sound analysis of their opposition, so their gamut of accusation is based on that with which they are most familiar: their own. It’s reflexive. They just can’t help themselves.

  6. Ginevra diBenci says:

    “…Our Border’s are Broken, our Election’s are Rigged.”

    Make Grammar Great Again.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love an artful comma splice, but the rest of his crap makes me feel like I’m watching written English self-combust in real time.

Comments are closed.