Karachi man unaware of Rs2 billion in his bank account

KARACHI: The Sindh Police and Federal Investigative Agency have kicked-off investigations after as many as Rs2 billion were found deposited in a vendor’s bank account.

Abdul Qadir, the resident of Orangi Town's Sector 8L, maintained no knowledge of the account and the funds in it. A police contingent has been deployed his residence after the said disclosure.

The vendor said that he came to know about the funds through a summon letter from the FIA, adding that a few years back opened a bank account to buy a house in the Sarjani Town of the metropolis.

Karachi man 'unaware' of Rs8bn deposit in bank account

FIA sources say the citizen had deposited Rs5000 two years ago to open three accounts but never checked the balance

Police maintain that the case appears to be similar to the ongoing money laundering case being heard by the Supreme Court of Pakistan involving Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.

Previously, in a separate case, FIA found Rs8 billion in the bank account of a Karachi man. The citizen has expressed a lack of knowledge about the huge sum.

According to sources, the citizen, Adnan Javed, had deposited Rs5000 to open three accounts under the title of a company, Lucky International, two years ago. But he never checked his account balance.

Business group involved in the transfer of money: sources

The said account operational from 2014-15 was holding funds deposited by a business group, said sources privy to the development.

Sources said that its a standard practice of the business groups to open such accounts, called as 'trade accounts', to evade taxes. 

State Banks' financial monitoring unit sent a report, expressing its suspicion over the funds in the account, to the FIA in 2016.

The sources have said that the business group's official has been summoned by the FIA to ascertain the matter.

The probe

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious bank accounts. The inquiry started when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a 'suspicious transaction report' in January this year regarding ten bank accounts.

Sources maintain that over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at a private bank were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made. The amount according to FIA sources is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.

But despite these huge transactions, the bank officials never reported them to the authorities concerned, including the FIA.