The hitherto little-known village of Qufada [Qufāda] sadly became national news for a local pyramid scheme headed by Hussein Muhammad [Ḥussayn Muḥammad], a trader in tiles who is a member of a big local family. He was known for trading with China and speaks Chinese. Ḥussayn was successful in setting up this scheme since he was not only able to get his cousin Shaykh Muhammad Abdallah [Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh] on his side but also Shaykh Hamdi Abdelfattah Muhammad [Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Muḥammad]. He made Shaykh Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ the head of a group of 60 deputies, including 12 Christians, who were active to promote the scheme. Shaykh Hamdi ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ is a popular Salafī shaykh in the village of Qufāda, Maghāgha, al-Minya. The scheme started in 2018 and gradually included most of the 13.000 Muslim families and 280 Christian families in Qufāda. After most villagers had become involved it expanded to surrounding villages with an interest paid of 16% per month. Of course, this could not be maintained. The maximum interest one can obtain from an Egyptian private bank is 14% per year.

The Egyptian public prosecution accused Hussein Muhammad and his team of stealing about one billion and a half Egyptian pounds from the people of the village. In the neighboring Christian village of Dayr al-Garnous [al-Jarnūs], villagers lost around one billion Egyptian pounds. The group around Ḥussayn Muḥammad was said to be able to extract in three years-time eight billion EgP out of this region. Angry victims around Qufāda are rallying against Qufāda where the perpetrators have come from. The Egyptian police sent in the first days of February four groups of six lorries to Qufāda with in each lorry 50 policemen to prevent escalation. The case is as of today still unresolved, and the police told the victims to go to the Public Funds Investigations authority ( مباحث الاموال العامة).[1]

[1] Phonecall with Father Yūʾānnis, March 24, 2021