The recent scandal of the swindling of millions of dollars by Nabil al-Boushi does not scandalise Boushi alone, but scandalises all his ‘victims’ as well. I need to point out that I utterly reject their denomination as ‘victims’ as the press has termed them, since I believe they were victimised by none other than corruption, greed, and idiocy. They allowed themselves to be deluded into the possibility of making massive profits that no economic or common sense can ever sanction.
This is not the first time Egyptians are swindled by fraudsters. It happened before; during the 1980s al-Rayyan, al-Sherif, al-Saad, and al-Hoda—all notorious swindlers who robbed Egyptians of millions upon millions of pounds—became household names. It thus does not cease to surprise me that so many people have not learnt the lesson. How come that there are still among us some who allow themselves to be seduced by greed into trusting their hard-earned savings into unreliable hands without thinking twice that it may be a risky venture, a mad gamble or a devilish ruse?
Did none of these ‘victims’ stop—as they collected their fist instalment of overly inflated dividends—to think that there was something just ‘not right’ about the entire venture? And did not this signal any danger? I should think it probably did but the din of greed does have a way of drowning all other sounds.
It is no secret that investment should be conducted according to sound bases through qualified firms and reputable funds. Neither is it a secret that investment involves various degrees of calculated risk and that the higher the risk the more lucrative the profit. Sound investment funds operate in the light and publish periodical statements of their performance.
So what would make people forego all legitimate financial institutions and hand their hard-earned savings to some shady firm or individual? Beyond doubt, it is the promise of incredibly high profits. So we are before the vicious triad of corruption, greed, and idiocy. Corruption allows the emergence of momentous amounts of money produced by illicit trade practices. Reputable financial institutions do not welcome such money lest they be involved in money laundering. Shady investors, however, may be even doing the owners of such money a favour by investing it for them, probably in some practice not entirely different from the one that generated it in the first place.
Greed leads people to run after the dream of quick profit, no matter if it comes through real production or mere speculation. The downturn, naturally, is that it involves a roller coaster of risk that may not end favourably.
But worst of all is the idiocy involved in such shady practices. Not a few of those who invested their money with Boushi or others like him had gained their money through years of sweat and tears. Nevertheless, they appeared to have no qualms about risking it all in one toss. One of them was even heard to say that he had already recovered his capital through the profits he earned, so what if he lost it later? I am lost for words for a comment.
There were no victims in the Boushi case. Better call them by their real names; to use the lingo so prevalent these days on an entirely different front, they would be “suicide investors” or “economy martyrs”.
