[JURIST] The former chairman of Egypt's largest state-owned newspaper allegedly took millions of dollars in secret payments, according to a report by Cairo's El-Osboa newspaper [media website, in Arabic]. Ibrahim Nafie became chairman of the Al-Ahram [media website] press group in 1979 and allegedly gave himself $14,400 daily from the distribution and advertising budgets, and threw yearly birthday parties costing the group $43,000. El-Osboa also claims that Nafie moved $70 million in assets from Al-Ahram to his own accounts before he lost his position with the press group earlier this year. Nafie had a close relationship with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [Wikipedia profile], and was often referred to as Mubarak's "right ear minister". News of the financial scandal comes just over a week before Egypt's presidential elections, scheduled for September 7. Aljazeera has more.