FIA seeks JIT formation in money laundering case against Zardari, others

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) appealed the Supreme Court on Tuesday to constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe an ongoing money laundering case against former president Asif Zaradri and other suspects.

During the money laundering case hearing, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, the FIA submitted its report regarding the probe and recommended the apex court bench to form a JIT.

The report apprised the court on the status of all suspects in the case – those who are on protective bail or are under judicial and physical remand.

The FIA report also detailed the recent raid at the Khoski sugar mill located in Badin, in which FIA along with Rangers confiscated the record of 16 sugar mills of the Omni Group, owned by Anwar Majeed who is among the suspects of money laundering scam.

As per the report, 27 hard disks of mills’ financial record have been recovered, however, some of the very significant record was burnt down before the raid. “Few samples from the burnt record have been collected,” the report added.

The hard disks of financial record have been sent for the forensic tests, whereas, the weapons found from the premises of the sugar mill have been handed over to police, the report mentioned.

FIA informed the bench that the process of freezing the assets of Omni group has been initiated.

The report further made crucial revelation that Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed own a company in Dubai under the name of ‘Crown Trading’. The foreign bank accounts of Crown Trading was used to transfer money for purchasing the property in Britain, the report cited.

The SC was informed that the government of UAE has been asked to provide further information about Crown Trading company.

The court ordered that Majeed and his son be sent to jail on judicial remand and adjourned the hearing till September 4.

 

The case background

The Supreme Court in July had taken up a suo motu case regarding fake accounts that revolves around a 2015 inquiry into the suspicious transactions when 29 ‘benami’ bank accounts were identified. Seven individuals were found involved in transacting Rs35bn suspiciously.

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.