Last month, news broke that Nabil al-Boushi, an Egyptian brokerage owner based in Dubai, swindled his clients -- including several celebrities -- to the tune of millions of dollars. Among other things, he is thought to have used money from Egyptian investors to pay off investors in the United Arab Emirates, while falsely claiming to have had relationships with top government officials in the region. His doings brought to mind another person in the news: Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, who has been charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme and duping numerous well-heeled investors, both in the United States and elsewhere.
As al-Boushi's dealings were brought to light, he was quickly termed the "Egyptian Madoff" in the press -- and in both cases, the finger pointing began. As if that weren't enough, investors in the region had already been spooked by the ongoing long-term probe into allegations of bribery and corruption at Dubai Islamic Bank and its subsidiaries, which sent more than 20 executives to jail.
To what extent might strong and enforceable financial regulations and good corporate governance standards have kept these frauds from happening -- or at least limited their impact?
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