KARACHI: The anti-money laundering circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have initiated an action against the alleged involvement of the owners of the Creek Marina project, a mega corruption scandal worth in billions of rupees.

A case has been registered under the provisions of FIA's anti-money laundering circle against the alleged owners and the companies for looting public wealth through fraud and misrepresentation.

According to the details, the case has been filed for allegedly depositing and withdrawing billions of rupees amount received under the written agreement into a    new account, instead of the respective escrow account where actual transactions should have to be made.

The FIA have registered a case against the key accused Naseem Shehzad including his son Muhammad Umar Shehzad, Nudrat Mand Khan, Muhammad Abdul Ghafoor, Meinhardt Singapore Pvt Ltd, Creek Marina Pvt Ltd, Creek Marina Singapore Pvt Ltd and others.

According to the case registered by the FIA, an offshore company was also opened for the embezzlement of public funds and the fraud. The accused transferred the funds abroad through telegraphic transfers. Accused Naseem Shahzad is also the beneficial owner of MSPL, CMPL, CMSPL.

Investigation also revealed that with this forged money, the prime accused made several assets in Singapore, United Arab Emirates and other places.

Moreover, Nudrat Mand Khan also bought expensive immovable properties in Bahria Town with the proceeds generated through fraud and deception.

According to the case, the accused committed the alleged money-laundering by transferring the exorbitant amount from the bank account of Creek Marina Singapore.

It must be mentioned here that even before the trial, the anti-money laundering cell of the Federal Investigation Agency raided the housing project Creek Marina in the Defense Phase VIII and after identifying the main accused of Creek Marina scam, started searching the assets and bank accounts of the Chairman Meinhardt Singapore Dr Naseem Shahzad and its CEO Umar Shahzad.

In this regard, FIA had also asked all the commercial banks to provide all relevant data pertaining to the accounts details of the accused.

The Creek Marina was a multi-storey residential project. On April 2, 2014, Secretary DHA registered FIR No. 176/14 against Naseem Shehzad, his son Umar Shehzad and accomplices accusing them of embezzling more than Rs 3 billion from citizens under the umbrella of fake housing project and for failure to complete the project in 9 years till to-date.

Moreover, it is also on the record that in the same year DHA contacted the Singapore police department but all efforts went in vain with no success.

Later, the matter was settled between the DHA and the Creek Marina Company after which the DHA dropped all charges in 2019 and a new agreement was signed on 18th June 2019 under which a joint account was established but the said company with the connivance of the Silk Bank officials opened another illegal account by means of forgery and malice.

Furthermore, in the interim challan, FIA has named 24 witnesses including buyers, investors, DHA officers, Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan, bank officers and FIA officers.

A case has been registered against the accused under the Sections 406, 409, 420, 109, 34 of the IPC and Section 5(2) Prevention of Corruption Act in the Commercial Banking Circle Karachi.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 15 2024

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