Qalyubia’s governor ordered the seizure of tons of goods and commodities at the warehouse of Egypt’s e-commerce startup MaxAB. The authorities seized under a false belief that these goods came from “unknown sources.”

The governor of Qalyubia, Abd El Hameed Al-Hagan, led a campaign to confiscate goods from one of the largest warehouses of MaxAb, about 84 tons of the startup’s goods were confiscated.

The statement revealed that the campaign resulted in the seizure of 14 tons of rice, 30 tons of oil, 5 tons of flour, 16 tons of pasta, 13 tons of legumes, and 6 tons of sugar not intended for free sale.

MaxAB’s CEO and co-founder Belal El Megharbel talked on the El Hekaya talk show yesterday and explained that MaxAB would be providing receipts to the government to get back its goods. El Megharbel also added that the seized goods only make up less than 5% of their total goods and that their operations have not been disturbed.

“The Qalyubia warehouse actually contained 6 tons of sugar, but it is not subsidized sugar, as was reported. We also have the invoices for this quantity, and all our papers are intact,” El Megharbel stated.

The statement stated that the warehouse was located without a license and that it contains large quantities of food commodities of unknown origin and stored without bills or invoices with the aim of hoarding and monopolizing them, in addition to seizing amounts of sugar intended for sale in the catering.

MaxAb raised $40 million in a pre-series B funding round at the end of last year from investors Silver Lake, British International Investment, and Disrupt AD. The round also included participation from the startup’s existing investors, BECO Capital, 4DX Ventures, Flourish Ventures, and Africa Platform Capital.