FIA kicks off probe into Creek Marina project

Agency determines Meinhardt Singapore extorted billions of rupees from people

ISLAMABAD:

On the directions of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament, the Federal Investigation Agency has kicked off an investigation into the alleged corruption and money laundering in the Creek Marina project in Karachi and is in the process of blacklisting the owners of Singapore's Meinhardt.

Meinhardt Pakistan office provides multi-disciplinary integrated engineering services delivered in the areas of town planning, architecture, interior design, civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, water supply, transportation and related disciplines.

According to details, PAC Chairman Noor Alam in the last meeting told the FIA director general about the alleged corruption and money laundering in the Creek Marina project, Karachi.

A letter signed by PAC Joint Secretary Aurangzeb directed the FIA to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged corruption and fraud in the Creek Marina project on the complaint of one Danish Ghazi, who is one of the many affected allottees.

The letter stated that the PAC chairman had issued instructions to inquire into the matter and if the company was found involved in irregularities, blacklist it as per the rules and send a comprehensive report to the PAC Secretariat immediately.

The FIA is already investigating allegations of defamation, banking fraud and money laundering against Singaporeans Dr Naseem Shehzad and his son Umar Shehzad as well as other associates of the project and has put their names on the watch list.

According to the application of Danish, the allottees of the Creek Marina project have been in waiting in spite of paying billions of rupees in the past 18 years and the company has been demanding more money from many of them despite not doing any construction work while the company has been threatening those who did not come under pressure of cancelling their bookings.

Also read: Bad investment?: Creek Marina still a dream as developers, DHA stuck in deadlock

Sources said that all the employees of Creek Marina and Meinhardt had locked their offices and disappeared while Naseem and Umar were in Singapore.

Naseem and his son are accused of extorting billions of rupees from the people, colluding with the bank staff to open a fake account and sending more than Rs3 billion out of Pakistan through a residential project called Creek Marina in Defence Phase VIII.

The people had complained to the FIA that they had booked apartments in the Creek Marina project but despite making full payments over 18 years, Meinhardt Singapore had not completed the construction of the project and not given them the flats.

The victims had also sent a complaint to the PAC.

The FIA's investigation determined that Meinhardt Singapore extorted billions of rupees from the people through the project.

In the application submitted to the PAC, the affected allottee, Danesh Ghazi took the stand that he had booked an apartment worth Rs25 million and during a period of four years, he had also paid Rs18.6 million, which was about 60% of the total amount.

“Despite the failure of the builders to construct the project, they demanded additional money and the bookings of many allottees, including me, were cancelled.”

It should be noted that in 2004, a Pakistani national, Umar Shahzad, as a representative of Meinhardt, entered into an agreement with the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi for the lease of 92,000 square feet of land in Phase VIII. The current value of this land is Rs46 billion.

According to this agreement, Meinhardt was to complete the project. In this regard, Meinhardt established a company called Creek Marina Private Limited. Under this agreement, the Singaporean company Meinhardt Singapore Pte was responsible for building and marketing luxury flats on the land given by DHA. Under this agreement, DHA was to get 15% of the covered area.