The Sindh High Court on Monday accepted a plea of Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, against the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the Rs 41 billion money laundering case. In his petition, Majeed alleged that the FIA was harassing him and requested the court to stop the agency from doing so. He also requested the court to summon the complete record of cases registered against him. The SHC issued notice to the FIA for September 24. Anwar, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, and his son were arrested on August 15 in connection to a case pertaining to money laundering through fake bank accounts. The father-son duo is currently in jail on judicial remand. The FIA is interrogating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fake accounts, including Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July this year in connection with the probe. According to sources, more than 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to sources. The amount, according to FIA sources, was said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes. Previously, the amount laundered from these fictitious accounts was said to be Rs32 billion, however, FIA officials said late last month they had found at least 15 more suspicious bank accounts, four of which were confirmed as fake. A total of Rs 6 billion were laundered via these four fake or ‘benami’ accounts. After the disclosure, the total amount of money laundered via fake bank accounts climbed to Rs 41 billion. Published in Daily Times, September 4th 2018.