Refaat El-Sayed

Refaat El-Sayed (born 11 February 1946 in Egypt) is a businessman of Egyptian and Swedish nationality. In 1981, he took command of a small biotech company, Fermenta, which he quickly turned into one of the success stories of the Stockholm stock exchange. El-Sayed soon became Sweden's wealthiest man, and created a fortune for his employees and shareholders. In December 1985 he was named "Swede of the year" by the TV news program Rapport. The following month, Fermenta announced a partnership with Swedish industrial giant Volvo. El-Sayed was at the peak of his fame. In February 1986, El-Sayed was accused of lying about his academic qualifications, as he had falsely asserted he was a Doctor of Science in biochemistry from a university in the United States. The partnership with Volvo was broken. He was later sentenced to six years in prison for fraud. In 1992, El-Sayed became the CEO of another biotech company, Hebi Health Care. El-Sayed has not been accused or indicted for any acts of creative accounting or fraud. However, he has been charged with misconduct for allegedly showing a higher profit of US$5 million out of a total turnover of US$600 million. El-Sayed was the first person charged in Sweden under the law from 1927. In 2002 a judgment against El-Sayed for fraud was canceled.