ISLAMABAD – Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, an aide to Prime Minister Shahid KhaqanAbbasi and Ambassador to the United States lands into more troubles becauseof money laundering scandal worth Rs3.3 billion for the acquisition of anItalian brand.
The anti-graft watchdog, NAB, has expanded its scope of inquiry over moneylaundry allegations involving M/s Azgard Nine Limited (ANL), JS GlobalCapital Limited, Swiss Bank Julius Baer and Securities and ExchangeCommission (SECP).
Allegedly all the transactions were made through Swiss Bank Julius Baer andcoupled with SECP’s efforts to hide and regularise illegal remittances of€23.75 million for the acquisition of foreign brands.
Available copies of NAB, State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) documents and aletter of Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) transpire that ANLobtained permission from SBP to remit €23.75 million to Sweden through HSBCBank for the acquisition of Italian brand. SBP granted permission and alsoimposed seven conditions including bringing back the profit to Pakistan.
On the contrary, ANL allegedly did not acquire committed brand/s as statedby them in their request to SBP. Moreover, in gross violation to the termsof SBP permission, ANL did not send the remittance in five equalinstalments and remitted €23.75 million in one installment after 8 monthsand 13 days.
Moreover, according to the documents a receipt dated December 29, 2018,confirmed a transaction worth €23.75 million with bank code DNBIDN 269ZA,which does not belong to HSBC Pakistan.
It is also learnt that ANL was to acquire foreign brands; however, ANLallegedly committed illegality of syphoning of funds on the pretext ofpurchase of Italian brand/s but purchased Montebello SRL for marketing ofANL products. ANL did not acquire committed brand/s as stated by them intheir request to SBP. The permission granted by the SBP was for theacquisition of foreign brand/s only.
This anomaly was detected by NAB while conducting a corruption inquiry in2016 from the audited accounts of ANL, for the year ended 2008, thatreflected a remittance worth €23.75 million for the purchase of an Italiancompany.
SECP also initiated an inquiry into the said matter; however, ANL did notprovide record and satisfactory response to SECP. ANL said that recordspertaining to SBP and SECP were misplaced and went missing during thecourse of the inquiry. Moreover, ANL in an alleged attempt to hide thematter, filed consolidation with SECP in 2015, which was followed by a Rs13million penalty on ANL.