Sisi fires Egypt's Anti-corruption Watchdog

The anti-collecting cabal refuse to acknowledge that the main problem with illegal antiquities is where they get onto the market, not where they end up. Corruption is endemic in source countries and in order to fight the traffic, this is where they should be directing their attention. They are unlikely however to speak out when it threatens their excavation privileges. In Egypt for example, no archeologist will criticise the government when "Sisi fires Egypt's top auditor known for anti-corruption drives" (Middle East Eye March 29 2016)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday dismissed the country’s top auditor, a known critic of the government who has accused it of corruption. Hesham Geneina, who headed the Central Auditing Organisation, told Egyptian media late last year that government corruption had cost the country about $76bn in just four years - roughly about 5 percent of the country’s GDP every year was lost to corruption. However, senior officials and pro-government media were quick to dismiss Geneina’s claims. Sisi removed Geneina by presidential decree.

It would not be at all surprising to find archeologists among those who were reported as putting pressure on the military dictatorship because they were concerned that his work would interrupt their “networks”.