TDAP laundering case: FIA finds proof of money transfer to foreign accounts

Farhan Junejo allegedly filed fake subsidy claims of Rs5b.

KARACHI:

In a major breakthrough, the Federal Investigation Agency found evidence of billions of rupees being transferred to accounts abroad that could prove that Trade Development Authority of Pakistan officials laundered money.

Farhan Jonejo, director to the former minister for industries and trade, allegedly transferred Rs250 million of corruption money through hawala and hundi, which are illegal methods of transferring money.

All his assets in Pakistan and abroad have been frozen.

FIA’s Karachi Crime Circle is investigating major irregularities in granting freight subsidies to fake claims by the TDAP amounting to Rs5 billion. The evidence collected earlier shows that billions of rupees in subsidy were given to fake companies during the previous Pakistan Peoples Party-led government.

Three cases have been registered and TDAP former director Javed Anwar Khan and project manager Mirchoo Mal Kathri, and auditors have been arrested.

FIA also found that members of the former government were involved in the fraud.

Faqeer Muhammad, Crime Circle’s deputy director, told The Express Tribune that the transfer of money by Jonejo was unearthed recently and it is a breakthrough in the case



Farhan is a grade-18 government officer and he was appointed on deputation in the federal ministry of industries and trade, where he worked as director to the minister from 2009 to 2012.

According to officials, he used his position to pressurise the higher officers to approve the fake claims of freight subsidy and also continued to receive kickbacks through his front man.

FIA claims that Farhan the Rs250 million to his bank account in Dubai. The money was later transferred to his mother’s account in Switzerland, two of his wife’s accounts plus his sister and his joint account in UK, and his brother’s account in USA.

FIA authorities also said that Jonejo has purchased property in the UK with this money. He also paid off a loan of Rs20 million for a house he bought in DHA, Karachi.

Faqeer Muhammad explained that this kind of step-by-step money laundering is called layering. The case against Farhan, he said, is the first of its kind in the country.

FIA officials also said that Farhan is also a UK citizen and has been living in Britain for the last one year. Therefore, the FIA has contacted their counterparts in the UK, including Serious Organised Crimes Agency (SOCA) and Homeland Security.

Jonejo’s assets in Pakistan are worth more than Rs160 million, according to the FIA.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2013.