–Court orders FIA to collect asset details of absconding suspects
–Close aide of Anwar Majeed, Muhammad Shabbir arrested for involvement in money laundering scandal
KARACHI: A banking court hearing the Rs 35 billion money laundering case involving Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur on Thursday ordered the authorities concerned to declare five accused in the case absconders.
As the court resumed hearing of the case, it ordered the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) to paste posters of the absconding suspects in public places.
It further directed the FIA to collect asset details of the absconding suspects.
Meanwhile, the FIA’s Immigration Wing has taken into custody Muhammad Shabbir, an alleged front man and close friend of Omni Group Chairman Anwar Majeed and his son. Shabbir has been handed over to the Joint Investigation Team, probing the money laundering scandal.
It has been reported that Shabbir is likely to be involved in “large-scale illegal allotments in Scheme 33, Malir Development Authority and Lyari Development Authority for the last six years and is an important character in the money laundering scandal”.
His name surfaced when a transaction of Rs 2.25 billion was discovered in the bank account of a Faluda vendor of Karachi. According to reports, it was said that the amounts drawn from this account were taken to Shabbir and his employer, businessman Younas Memon aka Younas Seth. It was later discovered that he was the man behind illegal allotment of public lands.
In addition to this, Shabbir used to get officers of his choice appointed in the Sindh Board of Revenue, MDA and LDA. After his return to Pakistan on September 26, the FIA authorities had called him to the Karachi airport regarding his travelling documents. On his arrival, he was arrested and handed over to the JIT investigating the money laundering case. Following the interrogation, Shabbir disclosed names of current and former officers of LDA, MDA and KDA, who will all soon be called in for investigations.
Earlier, an FIA JIT was formed on the orders of the apex court that has been investigating a 2015 case regarding fake accounts and fictitious transactions conducted through 29 ‘benami’ accounts in Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank Limited.
Seven people, including Zardari and Faryal Talpur, are said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through commissions and kickbacks.
While hearing a suo motu case regarding a delay in the FIA probe into the case, the SC had constituted a JIT to probe into the matter.
The case was initially registered in 2015 against former Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai, who is widely believed to be close to former president Zardari.
It was also reported that warrants were issued for suspects absconding in the case, including Namar Majeed, Aslam Masood, Arif Khan, Naseer Abdullah Hussain, Adnan Javed, Mohammad Umair, Iqbal, Azam Wazir Khan, Zain Malik, and Mustafa Zulqarnain.
Last month, Lawai and banker Taha Raza were detained and booked for allegedly facilitating the opening of 29 ‘fake’ accounts through which suspicious transactions were made to different companies, including M/s Zardari Group.
Talpur had also obtained an interim pre-arrest bail in the case in the sum of Rs2 million.
Both the siblings are facing corruption charges relating to fake accounts and fictitious bank transactions worth Rs35 billion. Both Zardari and Talpur face allegations that they had illegally channelled funds through the said accounts in connivance with the chief executive officers of major banks.
In August, the siblings had also appeared before a joint investigation team of the FIA in Islamabad to record their statement in the multi-billion rupee money laundering and fake bank accounts case open against them.