ISLAMABAD – Top Pakistani politicians found linked with Abraaj founder ArifNaqvi billion dollars fraud in US.
Pakistani businessman Arif Naqvi who is the founder of the collapsed AbraajGroup, a private equity firm, was arrested in the UK for defrauding USinvestorslinkincludingBill and Melinda Gates Foundation of mismanaging its $1 billion healthcarefund. Though Mr. Naqvi is out on $20 million bail (restricted to his home),reports are coming that he had close ties with some of the renownedPakistani politicians including PM Imran Khan and Shareef brothers.According to local media reportslink, Arif Naqvi was not only aclose friend of Prime Minister Imran Khan but also a major source of PTI’sforeign funding during the election.
*Dawn* reports link that the US government’sfilings before Naqvi’s bail revealed that he included a phone number forImran Khan in the list given to police of “telephone numbers to contact ifnecessary”, at the time of his arrest at London’s Heathrow airport.
It is worth mentioning here that Abraaj Group’s impact investing line ofbusiness and technology startups included healthcare and clean energy. Thefirm’s major healthcare investments include Islamabad Diagnostic CentrelinkinPakistan and Care Hospitals in India.
According to his lawyer Hugo Keith, Arif Naqvi has been friends with PMKhan for over 20 years. Meanwhile, prosecutors supported his extraditionand vigorously argued to deny him bail, however, the judge maintained hisstance that there is no reason to deny him bail. Arif Naqvi is currentlyfacing extradition to the US.
It must be noted that a recent interviewlinkofformer President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari with renowned Pakistanijournalist Hamid Mir was stopped from being aired shortly after it startedon a private news channel, apparently due to establishment’s influence justover a week ago. It is likely that Mr. Zardari was going to reveal more onthe Abraaj Group scandal. Meanwhile, PM Khan’s ex-wife Reham Kham hasrecently hopped into the streak and tweeted that* “Pakistan cannot lookaway from #PTIForeignFundinglink forever especiallymoney that was not meant for this purpose.”*[image: Embedded video]link
linkReham Khan✔@RehamKhan1linklink
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American investigators looking into #ArifNaqvilink #abraajlink scandal will be veryinterested to know what I was a witness to. Pakistan cannot look away from ##PTIForeignFunding linkforever especially money that was not meant for this purpose.3,643 link11:00 PM – Jul 1, 2019link
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According to local media reportslink, Arif Naqvi had borne 66%expense of Imran Khan’s election campaign in 2013. Arif Naqvi has alsooffered businessman Navaid Malik $20 million to secure Nawaz and ShehbazSharif*‘s* assistance in selling Abraaj’s stake in K-Electric Ltd, avertically-integrated power utility in Pakistan, as per a report ofAmerican news publication *The Wall Street Journallink*,
As a private equity firm actually derives a company that purchases sharesof private companies or acquires control of public companies with plans totake them private, Abraaj Group is also associated with selling shares ofK-Electric. Whereas, PTI’s leader Farrukh Habib has said that *“anyagreement with Abraaj capital to sell shares of K-Electric will be madepublic and parliament will be taken into confidence about it.”*
Meanwhile, various posts on social media also indicate that circle ofinvestigations on Arif Naqvi’s case might be expanded to Pakistan and ajoint investigative delegation of America and UK would visit Pakistan soon.
