The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has claimed to recover over Rs10 billion in the fake accounts case after the plea of seven suspects, including Abdul Ghani Majeed, was approved by its chairman Javed Iqbal.
According to the NAB, the suspects assured the accountability watchdog to return Rs10.66bn as well as returning 266.175 acres to the Sindh government and steel mills through NAB.
Main accused involved are Abdul Ghani Majeed, Hammad Shahid, Tariq Baig, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Tauseef, Mohammad Amir and Siraj Shahid.
FAKE ACCOUNTS CASE:
On December 24, the JIT, formed on the apex court’s orders to probe into the alleged money-laundering case via fake accounts, presented its 128-page final report to the court which included recommendations for filing 16 NAB references.
The report had mentioned that 29 fake accounts were identified by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which had laundered Rs42 billion, however, the team further discovered 11,500 bank accounts of 924 account holders, 59 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and 24,500 Cash Transactions Reports (CTRs). All of these details were scrutinised, besides the loan profile of 924 individuals.
The report further stated that the fake accounts were opened through the Omni Group, however, the accounts had been engaged with direct transactions with the Zardari Group, Bahria Town, Sindh government departments and certain contractors while the ultimate beneficiary of money laundering was Zardari’s family. Later, the court had ordered Zardari to submit his reply by December 31, however, during the previous hearing, extended his and his sister s interim bail till January 7.
On September 6, the SC had formed a JIT to probe into alleged mega money laundering of Rs42 billion channelled through fake bank accounts in three banks. Besides the Zardari family, several prominent individuals including former Summit Bank president Hussain Lawai and Omni Group president Anwar Majeed, have been accused in the case.
