In videos posted to Twitter and Facebook, Mohamed Ali, an Egyptian construction contractor, accused the Egyptian president and military of corruption. Speaking from self-imposed exile in Barcelona, Spain, Ali said the military owes him hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds for projects carried out by his company, Amlaak Group, including construction of a new presidential palace worth 250 million Egyptian pounds and a luxury hotel for a senior military general worth 2 billion pounds.

Though Ali did not provide evidence to back up his claims, he has nevertheless created widespread controversy in Egypt and attracted 120,000 followers to his Twitter account, @MohamedSecrets, over the last two weeks.

Ali said that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, his wife Intissar and senior army commanders have squandered public money, wasting millions of Egyptian pounds on misguided projects while asking Egyptians to tighten their belts.

"You are throwing away billions while your men are wasting millions," Ali said of Sisi, without naming him, in the first video he released Sept. 2.