NAB Recovers Over 2.2 Bln Deceived Money From Illegal Modarba Companies

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has so far recovered an amount of Rs 644.87 million in cash and assets worth Rs 1646 million that were deceitfully taken by illegal Modarba companies from people in disguise of providing profits instead of interests

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2017 ) :The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has so far recovered an amount of Rs 644.87 million in cash and assets worth Rs 1646 million that were deceitfully taken by illegal Modarba companies from people in disguise of providing profits instead of interests.

The bureau also identified a property worth Rs4 billion that was made out of this deceitful money, however matter related to this property was in litigation, Director Investigations National Accountability Bureau informed the Senate Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Narcotics Control.

The meeting of the committee was chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla while among others it was attended by senators, Kamil Ali Agha, Saud Majeed, Mohsin Aziz and Ilyas Ahmad Bilour. The NAB officials informed the committee that as many as 45 accused had been arrested who were in jail, while some were still at large.

He informed the committee that as many as 3,1477 people were looted by these illegal Modarba companies involving claims of Rs 22 billion adding that the bureau had unearthed 29 groups that were involved in the scam.

He informed the committee that most of the cases were related to twin cities of Islamabad-Rawalpind, with some cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a few from other parts of the country. In total, the affectees put about Rs 22 billion amount claims, which include the profit amount calculated with the principal amount, however, added that the actual amount might be around Rs 14 billion that was taken by these fraudlent companies.

Meanwhile, State Bank of Pakistan informed the committee that financial fraud related to Abandoned Properties Organization (APO) actually amounted to Rs 1.925 billion. SBP representative informed the committee that officials from APO, National Bank of Pakistan and Habib Bank were involved in the scam.

However, representative of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed the committee that the marks of this financial fraud could be traced back in 2012. He said that in addition to the APO, NBP and HBL, an official from First Women Bank was also involved in scam.

He informed the committee that 8 officials were arrested in this fraud, out of which 7 were on bail while one was in jail. He also sought help from the committee to approach Deputy Commissioner Okara to hold transactions and transfer of assets including 42 acres of land in Depalpur.

Meanwhile, representatives of Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan informed the committee that it was likely to complete investigation into alleged corruption of $17.5 million in the Multan Mtro Bus project by December end.

The committee was informed that China had already completed its investigation in the case, however enforcement to this effect was still awaiting. He informed that SECP was in contact with Chinese authorities, as and when any information is received, that would be shared with the committee.

On the issue of Bank of Punjab (BoP) share manipulation, he said that he had been collecting information from all stakeholders to prepare a detailed report to ascertain whether there was actually any manipulation or not.

On the occasion, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) informed the committee that it had initiated audit of all the four telecommunication companies operating in the country. The committee was briefed that three out of four cellurlar companies had already submitted their data while zong would sent its data within a couple of days.

The FBR team also shared some figures of Telenor company with the committee saying that it had 40 million customers and had made 98.064 million transactions during the month of July. The FBR officials agreed with the suggestion given by the chairman committee that the board should outsource audit of these cellular companies as it currently was not having capacity to do the same.

It was agreed that provinces should be taken on board on the issue before taking any decision. The committee also expressed concern over the FBR's move of imposing new regulatory duty on more than 700 import items.