ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court on Friday completed recording of statement of another prosecution witness who produced accounts details of A-One International allegedly used for money laundering before it in mega money laundering case involving former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, and others.
The Accountability Court judge-II, Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the mega money laundering case recorded the statement of prosecution witness, Christopher D Craz, a bank official, and asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce witness, Muhammad Naeem, additional registrar, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), for cross examination, during the next hearing to be held on January 6th.
At the start of the hearing, Zardari, Talpur and other accused's counsel filed separate applications seeking one-day exemption of their clients, which the court approved.
According to a joint investigation report (JIT) on fake accounts, the investigation into suspicious transaction involving 29 bank accounts found that "01 of the 29 accounts bearing No.1-2-28-20620-714-139111 in the title of A-One International sole proprietorship firm property purportedly in the name of Tariq Sultan located at shop No 40A, 2nd floor, International Business Centre, 268/2 R A Line Adbullah Haroon Road Saddar Karachi was fraudulently opened by using CNIC of Tariq Sultan son of Sultan Ahmed."
The witness said that on November 11, 2015, he had submitted various documents to investigation officer (IO) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Zahoor Ahmed Bacgani related to A-One International.
He further said that on April 22, 2019, Muhammad Ali Abro, a FIA officer, called him in the NAB's Rawalpindi office, and made confirmation about those documents which I had already handed over to Zahoor, the IO of the FIA, and he also recorded my statement.
The documents produced by the witness include original account opening for of A-One International, photocopy of Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) of Tariq Sultan, specimen signature card of A-One International date February 17, 2014, original EDD form of A-One International, original customer due diligence of account title A-One International, original KYC form of Tariq Sultan account title A-One International, customers risk profiling form of A-One International, and online verification of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) of CNIC of Tariq Sultan.
He also produced customers call report of A-One International, original application of opening of the current account with businessmen A-One International, original letter of subject proprietor declaration/authorization, copy of national tax number (NTN) certificate of Tariq Sultan, term and conditions of account and services of the Summit bank duly signed by Tariq Sultan account title A-one international, original account opening for additional account of A-One International, and original customer call report.
The NAB had nominated Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majid, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Taha Raza, Arif Khan, Muhammad Umair, Syed Hussain Faisal Shah Jamote, Azam Wazir Khan, Nimr Majid, Mustafa Z Majid, Ali Kemal Malik, M Younas Kudwavi, Zain Malik, Haji Haroon, Khawaja Muhammad Salman Younus, Pir Darvesh Khan, Imran Khan, Muhammad Aurangzeb, and Bilal Shaikh, in the supplementary reference filed in the connection with mega money laundering case.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020