NICL scam: Interpol freezes Moonis Elahi’s British bank accounts

Mohsin Warraich expected to be extradited to Pakistan soon, says FIA.

LAHORE: British authorities, acting on a request from Interpol and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), have frozen the accounts of a UK-based company owned by Moonis Elahi, one of the key suspects in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) fraud case.

Meanwhile, the FIA has also sent a reply to the British prosecution department and the UK’s serious organised crimes agency (SOCA) regarding the extradition of Mohsin Habib Warraich, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The FIA had earlier sent a request through the national central bureau of Interpol in Pakistan, based at the FIA headquarters in Islamabad. The request called for freezing the UK-based bank accounts of Elahi and Warraich.

The British authorities sent a set of 15 questions to the FIA investigation team regarding the background and the allegations against Warraich, who is a British national.

The Additional Director General FIA and NICL investigation team head Zafar Ahmad Qureshi confirmed that the answers of the 15 questions have been sent to the British authorities through the National Central Bureau-Pakistan. He claimed that after this, Warraich would be extradited to Pakistan very soon.

The bank accounts frozen by the British authorities reportedly had £1.3 million in them. The FIA, in the meantime, has been freezing Pakistani assets of several of the accused in the NICL case. Real estate worth Rs150 million belonging to at least three of the accused in the case has been seized by the FIA.

The two politicians’ sons were allegedly involved in the Rs2.75 billion NICL fraud case. They, along with several others, have been accused of using political influence to sell land to the state-owned insurance company that they did not own. They allegedly used a shell company – Privilege Farms (Pvt) Ltd – and fake legal opinions to hide the true ownership of the land being sold.

FIA officials also announced the arrest of two lawyers who allegedly wrote false legal opinions that allowed the sale of the land to go through. The FIA has charged Masroor Shah and Asif Mehmood of wilfully submitting falsified legal opinions regarding the ownership of nearly 100 acres of land, worth Rs1.68 billion, the payment for which was received by the Warraich family.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2011.