KARACHI: A judicial magistrate in Karachi remanded Hussain Lawai, a seniorbanker and close aide of former President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari,till July 11 in the federal investigation agency’s custody in moneylaundering case.
Lawai, former chairman of the summit bank and Taha Raza head of theCorporate Unit were produced before the judge where FIA investigationofficer told that the accused were involved in money laundering of billionof rupees. Anwar Majeed and others are also booked in the FIR which wasearlier registered in the banking circle of the Federal InvestigationAgency in Karachi.
The FIR divulges that a transaction of Rs 15,000,000 to Zardari Group,owned by Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Fayral Taplur.
According to case Number 04/2018 registered under section419/420/486/471/109 PPC r/w CA1947 r/w 3& 4 AML act 2010, it wasestablished during the course of FIA enquiry started upon receipt ofSuspicious Transaction Report regarding 29 accounts, that 01 of the total29 accounts bearing No. 1-2-28-20620-714-139111 in the title of A-OneInternational sole proprietorship firm purportedly in the name of Tariq wasfraudulently opened by using his CNIC.
“This account was subsequently used to place illegitimate funds for purposeof money laundering,” reads the FIR.
According to FIA the purported account holder Tariq Sultan denied to haveopened the said account. In view of denial of Tariq Sultan,handwriting/signatures opinion was obtained vide No. 370/TW/FIA/2015 dated17.11.2015 which corroborated the version of purported account holder TariqSultan and the signatures on bank documents are established to be forged.
In view of the record in respect of above bank account in the name of A-OneInternational (Proprietor: Tariq Sultan), it has been revealed that KiranAman the then Operations Manager has admitted and verified the fake/forgedsignatures of account holder as genuine with mala-fide intention.
“Noreen Sultan the then Relationship Manager has admitted the forgedsignatures of account holder on annexure for change of signatures otherthan CNIC and Adeel Shah Rashidi the then Branch Manager has signed KYC andrelated documents for approval of account opening, deliberately in spite ofthe fact that bank record (KYC) shows that account belongs to Omni Group,”according to FIR.
According to FIA officials, Adeel Shah Rashidi disclosed that the documentswere sent to Corporate Department for approval/consent where Taha Raza UnitCorporate Head sent back the documents with remarks “Referred by HussainLawai” and directions to open the account. Hence it is established thatbankers have opened fake/forged accounts by fraudulently fulfilling thecodal formalities i.e. obtaining signatures of account holder showing theirpresence, KYC and call report.
Noreen Sultan, Adeel Shah Rashidi and Kiran Aman disclosed that one ArifKhan, accountant of Omni Group was operating the said fake account whichwas also verified as per KYC that these accounts belong to Omni Group. Italso transpired that Aslam Masood CFO Omni Group had provided the filled-inAccount opening form duly signed for opening of forged account, FIAinforms, adding Aslam Masood and AM Khan are the authorized signatories ofaccounts of Agro Farms Thatta Pvt. Ltd, the CEO of which is Anwar Majeed
From the perusal of the account statement it was found that during a shortspan of 10 months (6-3-2914 to 12-1-2015) a sum of Rs. 4.5Billion wascredited and routed through this account, in which Rs750, 000,000 weredeposited from the account of M/S Bahria Town Karachi project and ZainMalik.
M/S Zardari Group (Asif All Zardari, Faryal Talpur etc) is one of thebeneficiaries of Rs4.145billion and has got Rs15, 000,000, according to FIR.
It is pertinent to mention here that opening of bogus account, placement ofillegitimate funds in it, layering of funds in different accounts andintegration of funds in shape of reporting of equity of Summit Bank toState Bank of Pakistan are the major indicators of Money Laundering. NaseerAbdulla Lootah (Chairman Summit Bank, a UAE National, presently out ofcountry) and Hussain Lawai, the then President (now vice-chairman) ofSummit Bank have been found instrumental in laundering of money.
From the record of SECP, it transpired that Anwar Majeed and Abdul GhaniMajeed are the directors of various companies of M/S Omni Group ofIndustries. It is further established that the alleged Persons namely AnwarMajeed S/o Abdul Maid and Abdul Ghani Majeed got opened fake bank account#1-2-28-20524714-139111 through Taha Raza and Hussain Lawai (both of SummitBank) with the fake/forged signatures Through their associate(s) namelyAslam Masood s/0 Masood-ul-Haq Malik and Muhammad Arif Khan S/o AbdulWadood impersonating as Tariq Sultan s/o Sultan Ahmed in connivance withbankers namely (i) Noreen Sultan the then Relationship Manager (ii) KiranAman, the then Operation Manager, and (iii) Adeel Shah Rashid’, the thenBranch Manager all of Summit Bank Ltd, Kh-e-Tanzeem Branch for routingbillions of funds. Enquiry regarding remaining 28 accounts mentioned in STRis still underway, FIA report reads.