Physical remand of actor Nadia Hussain’s husband extended in fraud case

A judicial magistrate on Saturday extended the physical remand of model and actor Nadia Hussain’s husband in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency in a case pertaining to alleged embezzlement of funds during his tenure as the chief executive officer of Al-Falah Securities.

The investigating officer produced Atif Mohammad Khan before the judicial magistrate (South) and requested a seven-day extension of his physical remand for further investigations.

Barrister Asad Ashfaq Tola, counsel for the complainant Al-Falah Securities, supported the FIA’s request and contended that the suspect’s custody was needed to recover essential documents and conduct further interrogation to establish links in the case.

He described the case as a complex white-collar crime and claimed that the suspect had unlawfully used the company’s funds for personal trading during his tenure.

After hearing arguments, the magistrate handed over the suspect to the FIA until March 18 with a direction to produce him on next hearing along with a progress report.

According to the FIR, the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi initiated an inquiry against Atif, former CEO of the company, and others over alleged involvement in "corporate financial fraud by way of criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust, abuse of fiduciary authority, falsification of accounts and dishonest misappropriation and utilization of company funds for wrongful gains".

It claimed that the former CEO engaged in his personal trading at the expense of the company's funds.

The FIA said that the analysis of Atif's trading ledger during his tenure as CEO from July 2015 to December 2023 and statement of his bank accounts revealed that he received Rs1.404 billion from the bank accounts of Al-Falah CLSA Securities Pvt Ltd and returned only Rs1.324 billion.

"Hence, he not only utilized these company's funds for financing personal trades but also routed the same systematically to conceal his debit balance by way of manipulating the company's ledger thereby falsifying company's account. At each withdrawal date, his trading account was in negative balance, meaning he owed money to the company, yet he continued his spree of withdrawing company funds and embezzled Rs80 million (approx.) as per company accounts. While his debit balance stands at Rs539 million indicating that this amount is payable to the Company by Atif Mohammad Khan," it alleged.