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To be exact, the person who brought gold out of Tunisia was Leila Ben Ali, first lady of Tunisia. A week before Mr Ben Ali's regime collapsed, Leila came to the central bank to instruct the bank governor to hand over 1.5 tonnes of gold worth nearly $ 60 million. At first, the governor refused, but after President Ben Ali intervened in person, he obeyed.
Mrs Leila and her family use a yellow-hauled jet to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Later, Ben Ali, along with his children and relatives, also flew to Saudi Arabia as refugees.
Leila Ben Ali is the best-known first lady in the Arab world for luxury lifestyle, spending money like water, dressing up for signs, driving sports car (her family has more than 50), often go Shopping in Dubai, each spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, she is nicknamed "Imelda Marcos of the Arab world." Imelda Marcos is the former First Lady of the Philippines, currently the second richest Philippine politician, with property allegedly obtained through corruption during her husband's reign.
Leila also nicknamed "Marie Antoinette of Tunisia" with arrogant interests. She often sent people to take their own plane to St. Louis. Tropez, the famous resort city of the super-rich in France, buys ice cream and luxury food for her mansion on the Tunisian beach.
Leila Trabelsi (maiden name) is Ben Ali's second wife. From a hairdresser, one step becomes the First Lady. Leila has 10 siblings and dozens of grandchildren. The most famous corrupt Trabelsi family, using the power of President Ben Ali dominate the banking industry, real estate business, large supermarkets, telecommunications, communications and customs. In general, domestic media viewed Leila as a symbol of corruption in Tunisia, much more than her husband.
In 2008, the US ambassador in Tunisia secretly reported to the US State Department that "Ben Ali's wife and her family were the most indignant Tunisian people". The leak was leaked on the WikiLeaks website last year.
Illegal retrieval of illegal property
Like the Persian Gulf dictators, it is difficult to identify the secret assets of Ben Ali and his family during the 23 years in power. In 2008, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune was $ 5 billion. However, according to Sami Ramadi, president of Tunisian Financial Transparency Society, the assets of the former Tunisian president may amount to $ 17 billion.
The most difficult thing for the Tunisian government, as well as the governments of Libya, Egypt ... after the "Arab Spring" and the "Hoa Lach Revolution", is to identify the place of property and legal procedures. To recover the property robbed.
After Ben Ali's resignation on January 14, 2011, the Tunisian government established in November last year began a campaign to revoke Mr Ben Ali's unclaimed property. Many of the companies and real estate of 114 of Ben Ali's relatives were confiscated. 33 members of the Ben Ali family were arrested at the crossing.
"We seized a plane from the Ben Ali family ($ 15 million Falcon 900) and a $ 28 million Canadian villa in Leila Ben Ali was deposited in a bank. Beirut (Lebanon), "Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced on July 18.
According to the People's Army.