NAB, with the approval of the ministry of law and justice, has already engaged the services of lawyers in London to defend the bureau and the government during the arbitration proceedings. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Pakistan faces a $500 million lawsuit by M/s Broadsheet – the firm that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had hired to recover off-shore, plundered money. Apparently, the dispute between the two boils down to the contentious payment of service fees.
Behind the suit
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, an agreement between the government of Pakistan, through NAB, and M/s Broadsheet – an Isle of Man registered company – was signed on June 20, 2000, specifically for the recovery of money and assets plundered by Pakistanis and deposited abroad. This agreement was conducted under the approval of the country’s chief executive.
NAB agreed to pay a fifth of the recovered or detected amount to the company. The watchdog concluded the agreement in May 2008, paying $1.5 million through a settlement agreement with a representative of M/s Broadsheet.
However, official documents reveal the company has taken the bureau to the International Court of Arbitration, claiming that it has not received the amount it was supposed to. Therefore, M/s Broadsheet representatives are expeditiously pursuing an arbitration claim of $500 million against Pakistan, which NAB, and the incumbent government, will have to defend.
Legal game on
NAB, with the approval of the ministry of law and justice, has already engaged the services of lawyers in London to defend the bureau and the government during the arbitration proceedings.
In this regard, a 500,000 pound sterling (approximately Rs76 million) expenditure has been anticipated. On the bureau’s request, the finance division allocated the required funds.
In this vein, NAB is in receipt of an $18,807.89 claim from the law firm Bryan Cave LLP for the legal services rendered. The claim, and the services of the lawyers, has been verified by NAB’s prosecutor general accountability (PGA).
Proceeding with caution
And yet, despite the PGA’s favourable report, NAB’s deputy chairman has stopped the bureau from making the Rs76 million payment to the foreign lawyers. According to sources, he has now directed the DG NAB Headquarters to refer the matter to the ministry of law and justice for advice. NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid has confirmed these developments.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 3rd, 2013.
COMMENTS (20)
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NAB agreed to pay a fifth of the recovered or detected amount to the company.” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mr 10% USD 60Bn. Detected:).
@unbelievable: No. they did not get the money. Very little, if any, was recovered. Broadsheet would claim that they detected the amount but Pakistan's government failed to recover, intentionally or unintentionally. No one signs an agreement to pay part of the amount that was detected. Agreements are usually on what was actually recovered. Of course there will be clauses in the agreement that the government should use all its forces and act honestly to recover the amount that was detected. Pakistan's government knew that they are not going to go after recovering the money that was detected even before signing the agreement.
Why don't you just pay what you owe? 20% recovery fee isn't egregious and you got monies that would otherwise be sitting offshore in someone else's bank account. You want to deal with professional's then act like one.
The beauty of dictatorship is that their fruits keep coming to bite us in our behind long after they have left. Be it Indus Water Treaty, flawed privatisation, Afghan war or questionable deals with shady companies.
"NAB agreed to pay a fifth of the recovered or detected amount to the company." The government should have agreed to pay part of the money that was actually recovered, not just detected by Broadsheet.
@Abid P. Khan: Well genius! if a settlement was indeed reached in 2008, then there is no case whatsoever. The case can be if there was no settlement, and the aggrieved party wants to go to the court.
Below is the information I have gathered about Broadsheet in 5 minutes. If you look closely company is in liquidation and liquidators have been appointed. How a company in liquidation can pursue a legal case is beyond me ? Everything about this company is fishy.
And there is only one Broadsheet in Isle of Man but only registered in 2000. This sounds like another farce from the NAB. Do we create another agency to arrest the crooks in NAB ?
LLC Company Details Company Name Broadsheet LLC Company Number 000432L Registered Office Millennium House Victoria Road Douglas IM2 4RW Date of Registration 16/05/2000 Presence of Charges N Status LIVE
Status LIQUIDATOR
BTW the article did not reveal the amount M/s Broadsheet detected ( plundered by Pakistanis aka politicians and deposited abroad) and recovered if any. . This will reflect the worth of the deal meant exclusively to malign the politicians( which they may deserve). Army using the journalists still continue to the rhetoric about the corrupt practices by the politicians, & Bureaucrats but other than the mis governance no major scam has been unearthed/ reported in the media. ( i am not a pro politicians )
Broadsheet Inc. sounds like a very dodgy company. Its registered offshore in Isle of Man. I cannot find any information on it so probably it is owned through proxy shareholders and is a front for previous NAB or Musharraf's government officials.
Why NAB couldn't hire a legitimate financial forensic detective agency to do this work ? Well, the commando needed someway to fund his retirement also.
This company reminds of another scandal when a company called Crux Haven (Crooks Haven) , based in Denmark, won the contract to supply Mi-7 helicopters to Pakistan government at inflated prices.
Remember Surrey Palace?
@Syed: @Parvez: its not PPP it was Armys govt.. . Did you read through the whole article and understand it? It says further: .
"The watchdog concluded the agreement in May 2008, paying $1.5 million through a settlement agreement with a representative of M/s Broadsheet.."
@Parvez: its not PPP it was Armys govt.
Say what you want, this country's going down the drain in front of everyone's eyes. There's no stopping it now.
I wonder how they are going to pay for the fees of lawyers & 500 Million incase they lose the suit... Maybe another loan from the IMF or Tax Increase or Increase in Electricity Tariff... of All of it???? What ever they decide............. WE ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT!!!
When you hire monkeys in the govt, this is the expected result. Maybe SC also check the degrees of NAB officials
Non issue, the Pakistani government would never be forced to payout such a large sum. Anyway 'khazana khali hai'
Another achievement of Gen Mush (Chief Executive) govt. Too bad the PPP govt was not unmasking it but finally the truth would come out. So much money has been wasted to frame political leaders and not much is recovered!