Money laundering case: MCB VP sent to jail on judicial remand

LAHORE: District court on Monday sent Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) vice president Asim Suri to jail on 14-day judicial remand on charges of influencing witnesses in a money laundering case against PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif and others.

Judicial Magistrate Yousuf Rehman heard the case, in which Asim Suri was produced by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team.

The court sent the vice president MCB to jail over charges of influencing witnesses in a money laundering case against Shehbaz Sharif.

Asim Suri was taken into custody by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Suri and MCB Group Head Azhar Mahmood were allegedly coercing prosecution witnesses, including bank officials, into changing their statements in the case, the sources revealed.

They said an FIA team had been dispatched to arrest Mahmood as well.

Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz are facing charges of laundering ill-gotten funds worth Rs25 billion using the Ramazan Sugar Mills and Al-Arabiya Sugar Mills.

Both father-son duo is out on bail. An investigation into the money laundering charges against Shehbaz and members of his family revealed that his assets increased from Rs14.86mn to Rs7328mn in the past 20 years.

Shehbaz made properties worth Rs619.85 million which include three homes; 96-H Model Town residence, Defence house and Doonga Gali house.

The declared assets by the PML-N president and his family in the year 2018 had gone up to Rs584 million while the latter had also succeeded in forming a proper money laundering set up in 2018.