FIA detains Axact CEO, recovers degrees, cards; FIR lodged

KARACHI: The Corporate Crime Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency lodged a fraud and forgery case against the Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh in the small hours of Wednesday.
Talking to The News, Director FIA Sindh Shahid Hayat confirmed the registration of the FIR under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code (fraud and forgery charges).
The move followed a late-night raid on the offices of Axact on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in DHA, where thousands of fake degrees of various bogus universities, diplomas and student cards were found and seized.
Hayat also confirmed that Shaikh had been taken into custody and shifted to the Corporate Crime Circle for questioning.
Earlier, FIA officials questioned senior officials of Axact, including their CEO Shoaib Shaikh.
Talking to The News, FIA Sindh Director Shahid Hayat said one floor of the Axact headquarters in DHA, where the technical equipment and hardware including computers, etc, were present, had been sealed by the FIA’s Corporate Crime Circle and its team was present there for investigation.
“The FIA’s technical and forensic experts are going through the equipment and computer records and trying to retrieve the data,” he said.
“The data that is being acquired is being examined for evidence of the fake degree business,” he added.
Hayat further said the heads of departments at Axact were questioned on Tuesday and their statements recorded. The heads include those of the company’s Accounts and Human Resource departments.
“We also recorded the statement of Axact CEO Shoaib Sheikh.”
Hayat refuted media reports that the FBI and Interpol had been contacted for assistance in the case.
“We haven’t written any letters to these agencies asking them for help so far,” he maintained.
“We are investigating the case on our own for now and after our probe concludes, we will move on to further steps like registering FIRs etc.”
Sources said that the FIA had sought from Axact No-Objection Certificates (NOC) of educational institutes, documents pertaining to affiliation with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and documents related to revenues from fees earned.
Questioning carried on for over two hours and, at the time of filing of this report, were still underway at the FIA office.
The Axact scandal came to light when the New York Times published an investigative report claiming that the Pakistani IT company had made millions of dollars by selling fake degrees online. Following the NYT story, the Pakistan authorities were quick to act as Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered the FIA to launch a probe into the fake degree scandal.
Monitoring report
RAWALPINDI: The FIA raided the Axact offices in Karachi, took its CEO Shoaib Shaikh into custody and recovered hundreds of thousands of degrees on Tuesday night, Geo News reported.
FIA Director Shahid Hayat said the agency was registering a case against the Axact CEO. He said enough evidence had been found against Axact. He said the FIA has recovered a large number of student cards from the main Axact offices.
Online adds: Earlier, during the day, the FIA interrogated Shoaib Sheikh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Axact, in the fake degrees scandal.
According to officials, the FIA officials grilled the Axact CEO for more than seven hours and interrogated him about the IT company’s bank accounts, assets, tax payments, licences and degrees.
The interrogation was held at the office of FIA’s Corporate Crime Circle where Director FIA Sindh Shahid Hayat was also present. Sources said the FIA has sought details of Axact’s 43 accounts in five banks.
On Monday, the Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed a protective bail plea filed by Shoaib Sheikh.
Meanwhile, the FIA has extended the parameters of investigation against Axact, as it decided to include Karachi’s top moneychangers in the investigation process.
According to sources, an important task has been given to officers in this regard and a list has also been prepared of the top money changers of the city. The money changers situated in areas including Bohra Pir, Risala, Kharadar, Mithadar, MA Jinnah Road and II Chundrigar Road were included in the list.
The sources revealed that the FIA team would investigate the money changers of the above areas in the backdrop of documents recovered from the Axact office. Axact used different money changers for the exchange of amounts.