FIA probe: 34 illicit bank accounts of Axact under microscope

Agency says accounts were opened on the basis of fake and fictitious documents, and CNICs of other persons.

KARACHI:

 The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will investigate 34 bank accounts associated with Axact, a software house allegedly involved in selling fake degrees across the globe, for financial irregularities.

In a detailed exposé run by the New York Times last week, Axact was accused of running a massive diploma mill over the internet with fake university websites being operated on offshore servers run from Karachi.

On Friday, a court allowed the FIA Corporate Crime Circle to access the bank accounts of Axact after the investigating agency sought permission to scrutinise the firm’s financial dealings.

Saeed Ahmed Khan, the FIA Corporate Crime Circle assistant director, had asked the judge of district and sessions court (south), Ahmed Saba, to look into bank accounts of Axact, its owners and directors under Section 94 (summons to produce document or other proof) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The investigator contended that Axact was running a scam and stashing away money in illegal bank accounts opened on forged documents. He also presented a list of accounts of the company, its chief executive officer and founding chairman Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and chief operating officer and vice-chairman Viqas Atiq among others.

According to court documents, the shady accounts were opened in Standard Chartered Bank, Habib Bank, Askari Bank, Allied Bank and United Bank.

Scanned image of FIA’s request before the District and Sessions Judge (South) Karachi. PHOTO: EXPRESS

Approving the FIA’s plea, the judge allowed the investigators to access the accounts and collect attested copies of transaction statements from the banks, as well as from the State Bank of Pakistan under the Bankers Books Evidence Act.

The inquiry against the software company has been launched under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document) and 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The probe was ordered by Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan after the NYT exposé termed Axact a “fake education empire”. A day after the story was published the FIA teams raided the company’s head office in Karachi and regional offices in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and confiscated educational degrees, diplomas and certificates as well as stamp machines.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2015.