KARACHI: The Federal investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday night raided the offices of Omni Group Chairman Anwar Majeed.
It was reported that the team investigating the money laundering charges against Majeed raided his office located near the hockey stadium.
“During the raid, the investigative team searched the offices and records pertaining to Majeed’s sugar mills,” officials said.
Majeed, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, and his son Abdul Ghani were arrested on August 15 in connection with a case pertaining to money laundering through fake bank accounts.
Earlier, FIA had told the Supreme Court (SC) that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has found 33 more suspicious accounts in the fake bank accounts case.
An FIA JIT, formed on the orders of the apex court, has been investigating a 2015 case regarding fake accounts and fictitious transactions conducted through 29 ‘benami’ accounts in Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank Limited.
Seven people, including Zardari and Faryal Talpur, were said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through commissions and kickbacks.
While hearing a suo motu case regarding a delay in the FIA probe into the case, the SC had constituted a JIT to probe into the matter.
The case was initially registered in 2015 against former Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai, who is widely believed to be close to former president Zardari.
It was also reported that warrants were issued for suspects absconding in the case, including Namar Majeed, Aslam Masood, Arif Khan, Naseer Abdullah Hussain, Adnan Javed, Mohammad Umair, Iqbal, Azam Wazir Khan, Zain Malik, and Mustafa Zulqarnain.
Last month, Lawai and banker Taha Raza were detained and booked for allegedly facilitating the opening of 29 ‘fake’ accounts through which suspicious transactions were made to different companies, including M/s Zardari Group.
Talpur had also obtained an interim pre-arrest bail in the case in the sum of Rs2 million.
Both the siblings are facing corruption charges relating to fake accounts and fictitious bank transactions worth Rs35 billion. Both Zardari and Talpur face allegations that they had illegally channelled funds through the said accounts in connivance with the chief executive officers of major banks.
In August, the siblings had also appeared before a joint investigation team of the FIA in Islamabad to record their statement in the multi-billion rupee money laundering and fake bank accounts case open against them.
