FIA’s final charge sheet accuses Waqar Zaka of luring public into dubious cryptocurrency trade

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has filed a final charge sheet against television host and social media activist Waqar Zaka in a case pertaining to a cryptocurrency scam.

As the case came up for hearing before Judicial Magistrate (East) Mukesh Kumar on Thursday, Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar filed his power of attorney on behalf of Zaka, who is said to be absconding, as well as an application requesting the court to condone his client’s absence until he returned from abroad.

Taking the application and power of attorney on record, the magistrate adjourned the hearing until Jan 19 with a direction to the lawyer to advance his arguments on the next date to satisfy him about the condonation plea.

At the previous hearing, the court had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Zaka. Earlier, the investigation officer, Ramesh Kumar, submitted the charge sheet stating that during the course of investigation, Zaka was allegedly found involved in luring the public into dubious online ‘Initial Coin Offering/Crypt Currency Courses’ and using social media platforms to promote and advise the youth to invest in the speculative risk-based business despite the fact that it was prohibited by the State Bank of Pakistan.

He alleged that the accused also charged people, who came in touch with him through social media, for these courses, adding that he also introduced a dubious coin, ‘Tenup’, to tempt the public into joining his ‘fictitious business’.

The charge sheet said Zaka allegedly used his salaried bank accounts for foreign remittances, suspicious transactions and raising funds. Muhammad Aman Khan, senior manager of remittances at a private bank, stated that foreign remittances were received into an account with the title of Waqar Zaka seventeen times, including 12 from a US-based company and eventually the account was closed after he failed to provide any justification for the remittances having been credited into a salaried account, it said, adding that foreign remittances were also received in his salaried account at another bank.

During the investigation, the investigation officer said he wrote a letter to the bank’s head of compliance to provide the details of whether the alleged transactions were reported to the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) or otherwise and in response to his letter, bank officials said three suspicious transaction reports (STRs) had been filed with the unit in 2018, 2019 and 2021 against Zaka.

“This shows that accused Waqar Zaka used his salaried account for foreign remittances and made suspicious transactions, for which he could not provide any justification to the bank concerned and eventually three STRs were reported to the Financial Monitoring Unit, State Bank of Pakistan,” he maintained.

The charge sheet said Zaka had allegedly committed offences punishable under the sections 13 (making, obtaining or supplying device for use in offence), and 14 (unathorised use of identity information) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in very tactful and technical manner. However, it said no evidence had been found regarding the sections 3 and 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

Earlier in the FIR, the agency stated that an inquiry was launched against Zaka upon receipt of a source report from the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) in August, 2020. The record collected by the FIA from the relevant banks revealed that during the last three years, transactions of over Rs173 million were observed in his bank accounts, including an aggregate credit of Rs86.1 million and debt of Rs87.1 million, it said, adding that funds were being credited into these accounts through foreign remittances (interbank funds transfer) and clearing of cheques, which were subsequently debited through internal transfer to accounts of his family members.

It stated that Zaka used social media for charity purposes and international funding, receiving Rs3.6 million through telegraphic transfer from a US-based company, which were withdrawn through the pay order and interbank fund transfer.

“The multiple news, blogs and videos were found on a public database which transpires involvement of accused Waqar Zaka into cryptocurrency/virtual assets,” the agency claimed. “During the enquiry, Bitcoin/cryptocurrency-related posts were found on his Twitter account, the accused also promotes cryptocurrency like Bitcoin through YouTube channels,” the agency said.

It said the State Bank of Pakistan did not recognise virtual assets as a legal tender to store and transfer value, adding that the central bank had also issued a caution regarding the risk of trade in cryptocurrencies and prohibited the public from trading in any such currencies.