Ex-Egypt Bank Head Arrested on Sex Charges

By Renee Lawrence - May 31, 2011 7:58 AM PT 

The former chairman of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria was charged with sexually abusing a maid at the Pierre Hotel in New York, police said.
Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, 74, chairman of El-Mex Salines Co., was arrested yesterday after a 44 year-old female maid alleged he attacked her May 29, according to a police department spokesman. Officers were called to the hotel, located in midtown Manhattan, after she informed security of an alleged incident when she went to Omar’s room after he requested tissues.
Police charged Omar with sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, forcible touch and harassment. He allegedly asked the maid for her telephone number and she gave a false one before leaving the room, police said.
The alleged incident comes two weeks after the arrest in New York of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief charged with attempted rape of a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. He plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyers.
Omar is the former chairman of the Egyptian American Bank and the Federation of Egyptian Banks, according to the El-Mex Salines company website. He is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Manhattan Criminal Court.
The Pierre, where room rates start at $776 a night according to its website, is part of the Taj Group of Hotels. The hotel said it’s cooperating with police.
The “Pierre’s priority is the safety of the guests and our staff,” the hotel said in a statement read over the telephone. “We take all complaints very seriously and investigate it thoroughly.”
Osama Abdel Aziz, the executive manager at El-Mex, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment and calls to the company went unanswered. Nobody was immediately available for comment at Bank of Alexandria.
To contact the reporter on this story: Renee Lawrence in London at rlawrence7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.