Fraud charges: FIA arrests former KMC director in Rs1.5b scam

Muhammad Ehsaan arrested for a scam worth Rs1.5 billion

KARACHI:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested a former education director of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Muhammad Ehsaan, on Sunday for a scam worth Rs1.5 billion.

Earlier, the FIA had arrested KMC's former budget director Nasir Mehmood Ishaque in connection with the same scam that involved senior employees of Allied Bank Limited (ABL), Azhar Ali Khawaja and Saeed Ahmed Qazi. The accused had received post-arrest bails a few days ago.

According to the FIA press release issued on Sunday, the KMC had lodged a complaint with the federal agency about illegal and fraudulent encashment worth Rs1.5 billion. The investigations began and the FIA learned that a bank employee, Syed Wajahat Hussian Naqvi, along with the KMC directors opened a fake account at ABL's Civic Centre branch and illegally transferred funds from various accounts belonging to the KMC.

The FIA spokesperson confirmed that nearly Rs1.5 billion were withdrawn in cash from this fake account and were later transferred to a bank account belonging to MS builders. This account was also maintained at ABL's Civic Centre branch.

"The mastermind of this corruption was the accused Wajahat, who was murdered on January 22 this year in an apparent target killing," said the spokesperson. He added that the illegal money was used to purchase property number FL-3, 11-A in North Karachi and there are apartments under construction on that site.

More than Rs90 million were also illegally transferred from the KMC account to M/S Moosa Enterprises and M/S Sanford Associations, both companies owned by Sheikh Muhammad Shahid, a business partner of the accused Wajahat, the FIA officer pointed out.

Requesting anonymity, a KMC official also said that the bank does not have any records of these transactions and it has become difficult to trace the money. "The FIA have seized all the accounts and have recovered some of the stolen money," he said.

The officer claimed there are several other scams within the KMC that can be probed if the administration seriously starts tackling the financial and land records.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2014.