Court orders five money laundering accused to be declared proclaimed offenders

KARACHI: A banking court hearing a multi-billion rupee money laundering scam against Asif Ali Zardari and his close aides on Thursday ordered Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to declare five absconding suspects proclaimed offenders.

The court during the hearing directed the investigation agency to paste posters of the proclaimed offenders at public places.

The court also directed to collect details of assets of the accused in money laundering through fictitious bank accounts.

Recently, in connection with the ongoing probe into money laundering case, the FIA unearthed two fake bank accounts belonging to an unemployed youth in Jhang and a Falooda vendor of Karachi’s Orangi Town.

According to details, the FIA discovered that the fake bank accounts were opened in private banks in Karachi and contained millions of rupees without the knowledge of the account holders.

The case background

Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister were among over a dozen suspects declared absconders in the money-laundering scam.

In the FIA list, Anwar Majeed and his son’s names appeared on top of the list while those of Zardari and Talpur were on the 19th and 20th number, respectively.

According to the FIR registered by FIA, transactions of billions of rupees were made into suspicious accounts, including the one owned by the PPP leaders, the Zardari Group, which is accused of receiving Rs 15 million of the laundered money.

In December 2016, the Pakistan Rangers conducted raids at the Karachi office of the Omni Group of Companies and the residence of its owner Anwar Majeed, a close aide of Zardari, and confiscated record allegedly related with money laundering.