Refaat el Sayed seemed to come out of nowhere to become one of Sweden's most successful business executives. Born into a wealthy Egyptian family, he moved to Uppsala, near Stockholm, to study agricultural science in 1968. El Sayed attracted little attention until 1981, when he borrowed $5.3 million and bought a money-losing Swedish drug company called Fermenta. In four years he transformed it into a leading producer of antibiotics. His company's 1985 profits hit $43.2 million, and Sweden's national TV network honored him as the country's man of the year.
But last week el Sayed, 39, was a man in disgrace....