Recovering ill-gotten money: NAB seeks access to Tauqeer Sadiq’s bank account in UAE

Ex-chairman Ogra maintained accounts in a Dubai bank under his uncle’s name.

ISLAMABAD: The country’s corruption watchdog is in the process of initiating a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreement with the UAE government hoping to recover over a hundred million rupees of alleged corruption money amassed by former chairman Ogra in secret bank accounts.

Tauqeer Sadiq, who is under physical remand, was brought back to the country from the UAE on the orders of the apex court.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) wrote a letter to the UAE government on August 7, requesting the gulf state to return millions of rupees to the national exchequer from Sadiq’s bank accounts in Dubai’s Mashreq Bank.

However, “without a legal agreement between the two countries the UAE authorities are not obliged to accept Pakistani courts’ orders,” said a senior NAB official.



The MLA agreement initiated under National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 would pave the way for NAB to recover money from Sadiq’s bank accounts, which he was operating under his maternal uncle’s name.

The millions deposited in Sadiq’s accounts in Dubai are allegedly received in kickbacks and commissions from his partner, from other CNG companies for issuing them licences and from gas theft during his tenure as chairman Ogra.

“Sadiq’s business partner has agreed to become approver against him and has voluntarily returned more than 30 percent of over Rs160 million he received from Sadiq in investments,” a NAB official told the Express Tribune.

He added that Sadiq’s business partner through a cheque returned the first installment of Rs13.4 million, 34 percent of the total amount, to Chairman NAB on August 29, 2013 and has sought time to return the remainder in installments.

Sadiq’s business partner maintained that he was unaware that the money was obtained through corruption, the NAB official added.

NAB has also recovered through SNGPL (Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited) Rs3.206 million against gas theft.

The bureau has so far recovered Rs42.05 billion from the Rs82 billion Sadiq is accused of embezzling. The recoveries were made in the form of direct, indirect and adjusted recoveries.

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