FIA arrests Shoaib Shaikh for ‘bribing’ judge

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested Shoaib Shaikh, owner of a private television channel and chief executive of Axact, for allegedly giving Rs5 million as a bribe to then-additional district and sessions judge Pervaizul Qadir Memon for getting acquittal in a fake degree case.

The FIA spokesperson said the businessman was arrested by the agency’s anti-corruption circle in the federal capital. The agency said the suspect had paid a bribe for acquittal in the case registered against him under the fake degree scam in Islamabad’s Cybercrime Circle.

The spokesperson added that the agency had started investigating Shaikh following his arrest. The judge, too, was nominated in the case against Shaikh, the FIA said.

The FIA, on February 15, 2023, summoned the Axact chief in connection with the bribe case. Shaikh, however, did not appear before the probe team. Memon had acquitted Shaikh, chief executive officer (CEO) of Axact, the company that made billions of dollars by selling fake degrees worldwide, and others in fake degrees scam on October 31, 2016. Later, the judge was sacked on February 15, 2018, by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) as he confessed before a departmental promotion committee that he had received the bribe for acquitting the accused.

The IHC division bench in April 2018 had set aside the October 31, 2016 acquittal order passed by Memon.

Meanwhile, a case had been filed against the CEO of Axact under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Bribery Act with the FIA at the request of the IHC registrar.

Sources in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), meanwhile, revealed that Shaikh did not pay his tax dues worth over Rs146 million. The penalty is not included in the amount, they added.

In its notice, the FBR asked the bank manager, “The taxpayer has not paid the said amount in time, therefore, under the provisions of Section 140 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 you are required to attach immediately all Pak Rupee Bank Account(s) of the taxpayers, being maintained in your bank against above mentioned CNICs # and business names and remit or send the money to the undersigned through pay order/D. Draft or through banking transfer or cheque for payment to the government treasury under Income Tax head of account immediately after service of this notice upon you.”

It may be mentioned that vice president of Axact Umair Hamid was sentenced to 21 months in prison in the United States for his role in an international diploma mill scheme operated through the company.

Joon H. Kim, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, had given the verdict.

In addition to the jail term, Hamid, 31, from Karachi, was ordered to forfeit $5,303,020. He had pleaded guilty on April 6, 2017 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Hamid had entered the guilty plea before US District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who imposed the sentence.