- Justice Khosa says it’s incorrect to assume that there is no evidence of money laundering
The Supreme Court on Monday said it would be incorrect to assume that there was no evidence of money laundering against Axact CEO Shoaib Sheikh as it disposed of the bail plea of Shoaib Sheikh.
A three-member bench of the court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa heard the bail application filed by Shoaib Sheikh against the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) order.
Shoaib, the CEO of infamous ‘IT company’, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) after the SHC had rejected his bail plea in February’s last week.
Over the course of the hearing, Shoaib’s counsel insisted that his client and the company were not involved in any money laundering, adding that all money was brought into the country legally.
“The issue is not about the money brought into the country, but the money that was taken out of the country, the judge observed as he asked the counsel to explain why the Axact CEO wrote 116 cheques worth Rs170 million.
“The cheques were written between 2014 and 2015,” the counsel said, adding that his client was arrested by the authorities in 2015. “At this point, how can we say that there was no money laundering,” Justice Khosa wondered.
Unable to satisfy the court on the matter, the petitioner withdrew his appeal against the SHC order as well as a fresh application for bail which he had entered in the apex court.
On Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge (South) Sarah Junejo had excused herself from hearing the bail plea of the Axact CEO, becoming the third judge to do the same.
According to FIA, in 2014, Sheikh transferred Rs170.17 to a Dubai-based firm, Chanda Exchange Company.
Axact scandal was emerged in May 2015, when New York Time published a report claiming that the company is involved in selling fake diplomas and degrees to people around the world through fictitious schools making “millions of dollars annually.”
In January 2018, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of the Axact fake degree scandal after international news reports once again revealed that over 3,000 UK citizens had purchased fake degrees from Axact in 2013 and 2014.
