The fake accounts joint investigation team (JIT) report is made up of 27 volumes, 27 investigation reports, and an executive summary of 135 pages with 95 big annexures.
The 25th volume of the JIT report carries explosive incriminating evidence against the key accused, whose identity has been kept confidential.
Head of the JIT team Ehsan Sadiq requested the Supreme Court not to disclose this volume.
Credible sources revealed that this volume consists of three parts – System, Foreign Properties in US, UK, France and Dubai, and Interior Sindh Agricultural Empire.
The JIT claimed to have unearthed a “system of corruption” in Sindh where the key accused named in this report were minting more than Rs40mn monthly, and laundering it through hawala and hundi (informal money transfer systems) through some 120 frontmen, Ayyan Ali, Younas Kudwai, and Abdul Jabbar in particular.
The KAM Crown International Company, owned by the Majeed family, was collecting all this laundered money, the sources further disclosed.
About the foreign properties owned by Zardari and Talpur family, the JIT clubbed relevant addresses and details of some 25 properties directly or indirectly acquired by former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in Paris, New York, London and Dubai, the sources revealed.
Requests generated under the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) law to these countries have also been clubbed with this volume.
The JIT has also initiated MLA requests with some other international jurisdictions as well.
About the Interior Sindh Agricultural Empire, the sources claimed that there are around 120 agricultural farmhouses owned by the Zardaris and Talpurs, which were not declared by members of the National Assembly (MNAs) Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) Faryal Talpur.
Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari lead the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which runs the Sindh government.
The JIT obtained all the relevant documents, but despite repeated requests by the JIT, the district co-ordination officers (DCOs) of concerned areas refused to share the land’s original record.
Further volumes also carried important evidence against Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, where payment of utility bills of Bilawal House in Karachi, was made through fake accounts.
Rs1.53mn was paid to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board in May 2015.
The complete details and evidence pertaining to “Expenditures and Renovation of Bilawal and Zardari Houses” are also contained in the JIT investigation report no 25.
“Expenditure of Bilawal House”, worth Rs4.14mn, was paid out of the fake accounts to “The Deli Restaurant” (proprietor Tina Mehdi) for catering and event services at Bilawal House.
Purchase of air tickets worth Rs12.82mn was made through fake accounts routed through M/s Pak Paradise and M/s Fazl-e-Rabbi Travels for Bilawal Zardari, Aseefa Zardari, Mirza Arshad Baig, Sharmila Farooqi, and Asif Ali Zardari.
The current JIT explored 11,500 bank accounts of 924 account holders associated with the above-mentioned accounts.
Fifty-nine suspicious transaction reports (STRs) and 24,500 cash transaction reports (CTRs) associated with the above-mentioned accounts were scrutinised, along with the loan profile of 924 individuals and entities.
The JIT summoned 885 persons; however, only 767 appeared and were examined by the JIT.
The JIT recommended that all these matters be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for a thorough inquiry and investigation, and filing a reference in the accountability court for prosecution and recovery of proceeds of crime of payment of utility bills of Bilawal House and other expenditures from fake accounts.
Main debtors and creditors included Omni Group, Bahria Town, Zardari Group, Parthenon Pvt Ltd, Zain Malik (son-in-law of Malik Riaz Hussain, the chief executive of Bahria Town Pvt. Ltd), Arif Habib, and a group of contractors/builders including Mustafa Memon, Sardar Ashraf D Baloch and Sher Mohamed Mugheri.
The JIT also pointed to the role of Zardari, when he was president of Pakistan, that he not only orchestrated this fraudulent misappropriation but also shareholders in M/s Park Lane where Bilawal Zardari has 50% direct beneficial shares.
The JIT recommended that the NAB be directed to file a reference against Zardari and his son, and bank officials as co-accused, in the accountability court and recover the misappropriated loan (Rs1.5bn), along with the total outstanding loan of Rs3.74bn (loss to the public exchequer).
The JIT named 24 key accused (operators, beneficial owners, abettors and bankers) including Anwar Majeed (head of Omni Group), Abdul Ghani Majid, Aslam Masood (chief financial officer of Omni Group), Noreen Sultan (then-relationship manager at Summit Bank), Hussain Lawai (then-president of Summit Bank), Asif Zardari, and Bilawal.
The JIT has also revealed details about the receipt of Rs10.02bn in kickbacks through “fake accounts” by Asif Zardari.
Sindh government adviser Murtaza Wahab has said of the JIT findings: “It’s a pack of fiction based on conjectures and surmises. We will all come out and defend all allegations at the trial court. The JIT’s finding were supposed to be kept confidential as per Supreme Court order, but unfortunately information was leaked to malign the PPP leadership.”
Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
