Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered on Wednesday to investigate the ongoing money laundering case, pertaining to the fraud of Rs 35 billion from fictitious bank accounts, with transparency.

A three-judge bench session. presided by the CJP, heard the money laundering case.

As the hearing commenced, Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon recorded his statement and informed the court that they conducted a raid at Omni Group’s Karachi office.

“We found documents related to Kam Crown International Trading House Company in Dubai during the raid,” the DG FIA told the apex court.

Based on those documents, our team conducted a raid at the Dubai office and found numerous records of foreign currency accounts, he added.

Memon further said the records of accounts found from the Dubai office belonged to the family of Omni Group chairman, Anwar Majeed.

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The transfers in those accounts were made by the same people as those indicated in the account details found earlier, Memon added.

“From Dubai, the money was sent to England and France,” he went on saying.

Memon told the court that they have seized several hard drives which contain a lot of data.

To this, Justice Ijazul Ahsan questioned if FIA has the relevant staff who could check the data. “Our cyber crime wing is working on it but there is a lot of data,” the DG FIA responded.

Justice Nisar then observed, “We should form a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate this matter.”

To this, Justice Ahsan questioned if anyone would have reservations about the formation of a JIT. CJP said, “Who will have any reservations?”

“A clean chit will be issued to the suspects. This matter has nothing to do with the suspects,” he added.

After that, Majeed’s counsel Shahid Hamid said, “I have filed a miscellaneous petition regarding the JIT, kindly look into it.”

To this, Justice Nisar remarked, We have the records of the conversation between Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and the Chief Minister.

“We will transfer the case to Punjab,” Justice Nisar further added.

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CJP then ordered to form JIT to probe the scam and said, “It is a matter of Rs35 billion, we want a transparent investigation.”

The FIA investigation began when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan issued a transaction report, regarding ten bank accounts, in January this year.

Sources claimed that at least 20 benami accounts at a private bank were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.

According to the FIA sources, the amount is said to be black money which has been gathered via various kickbacks, commissions, and bribes.

Despite these huge transactions, bank authorities never reported them to the concerned authorities.