Interpol’s help needed to expose all aspects of Axact ‘scam’

ISLAMABAD: While questions are being raised about the handing over of case investigations to the Corporate Crime Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) instead of Cyber Crimes Wing and participation of some leading officials in the functions of Axact, top officials believe that the help of Interpol and internationally-reputed cyber crimes investigation agencies would be needed to expose each and every aspect of this international fraud and to trace all communications of Axact clerks with defrauded people and money movements.
The FIA officials say their teams have the expertise to probe this scandal but there might be some stages where the help of international bodies and some top cyber crime investigating agencies would be needed to ascertain the truthfulness of the allegations leveled in the New York Times story.
The officials, however, said to prove the case in the court of law, statements of Axact team members, who remained part of different steps of this process of selling degrees and authenticating them, would be more helpful.
Officials also claim that documents and record recovered from the Axact office proves most of the points highlighted in the NYT story, including working on the behalf of the US State Department.
The officials, however, said that to prove the case of issuance of fake documents and letters on the behalf of the State Department and officials of the department, help of Pakistan’s Foreign Office would be needed.
The FIA officials said investigations into the tax fraud would be carried out by the FBR only and the FIA could come on the scene after the FBR’s report on the issue.Officials said complete investigations would take time and Axact would also be given full opportunity to record its viewpoint or to prove the allegations against them as wrong.
Senior officials insisted that help of agencies’ experts in probing cyber crimes at the international level would be of great help and without that many aspects of the case would remain undisclosed.