FIA sources dispute reports of Owais Muzaffar Tappi’s arrest

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sources informed Geo News on Tuesday that Owais Muzaffar Tappi, the foster brother of Asif Ali Zardari had not been arrested in Dubai. 

Earlier, it was misreported that Owais Muzaffar had been arrested by Interpol in Dubai. 

Owais Muzaffar is accused of illegal land allotment and money laundering. He is being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau and is accused of misusing his authority when he was the Sindh local bodies minister during the PPP’s tenure. 

FIA sources have revealed to Geo News that Arif Khan the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Omni Group has been arrested by Interpol in Dubai. He is expected to be extradited to Pakistan later this week. 

Money-laundering case 

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July last year in connection with the probe.

The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed a close aide and Omni Group chairman and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August 2018.

Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to sources.

The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.