The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday that the Omni Group had withdrawn millions of rupees from bank accounts that were supposed to be frozen under the court orders.
The agency, through a report presented to the apex court, said that despite court’s orders, 10 of 41 bank accounts were not frozen right away due to which transactions worth millions of rupees were made from these accounts.
On the FIA’s request, the apex court had earlier ordered freezing of 41 bank accounts operated by six companies allegedly owned by the Omni Group, whose chairman, Anwar Majeed – along with former president Asif Ali Zardari and others – was being interrogated over money laundering allegations.
According to FIA, the accounts were held by the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), which had instructed its staffers to debit lock the accounts. The FIA further said that the accounts were frozen after some delay due to the negligence of Assistant Vice President Afzal Sadiq, allowing transactions worth millions of rupees. Sadiq was since suspended from his serves, the FIA told the top court.
Pak Ethanol, Tando Allayar Sugar Mills, Omni Polymer Packages, Omni Pvt Ltd, Chambar Sugar Mills and Ansari Sugar Mills are the six companies whom the 10 bank accounts belong to, the FIA reported.
The agency is interrogation 32 people, including former president Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, in relation of money laundering from fictitious accounts. On July 6, the FIA arrested Hussain Lawai, who is said to be a close aide of Zardari, in connection with the ongoing money laundering probe.
Meanwhile, Zardari and Talpur had obtained pre-arrest bails. They have reportedly been handed questionnaires seeking their responses to the allegations levelled against them
On the last hearing, the FIA claimed to have identified two more companies in connection with the probe.
In its progress report submitted to the Supreme Court, the FIA said that it had identified two additional companies -M/s Landmarks and National Gases (Pvt) Limited – tied up with the investigation. The agency said it came to know of the two companies from a hard disk confiscated during the last week’s raid on Khoski Sugar Mills – an Omni Group-owned facility.
Published in Daily Times, September 8th 2018.
