FIA lodges case against private airline

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the complaint of Civil Aviation Authority has registered a case against a private airline.

The spokesman for FIA Sindh said that the registration of case against M/s Shaheen Air International (SAI) was on the complaint of CAA for causing huge loss and misappropriation to the national exchequer. The case FIR No.16/2020 has been registered at the FIA, Corporate Crime Circle, Karachi.

The instant case is an outcome of inquiry No.80/2018 of FIA, Corporate Crime Circle, Karachi, initiated on the basis of written complaint of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Karachi.

During the course of inquiry, it came on record that M/s Shaheen Air International (SAI) had to pay Flight Operation Charges to Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) but management of M/s Shaheen Air International (SAI) have defaulted in paying the CAA charges and levies from March 2018 till date.

The management is illegally holding an amount of Rs1.4 billion (approximately) plus KIBOR plus surcharge of CAA, thus causing a huge loss of Rs1.4 billion + KIBOR + surcharge of national exchequer.

During the inquiry, the FIA approached the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) for CTRs/STRs of accused persons. The FMU authorities contacted the Canadian authorities. Later, two accused persons were intercepted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) carrying cash of CAD-500,000. The cash was held by RCMP.

The case has been registered under sections 406 (Criminal Breach of Trust), 489-F (Dishonouring of Cheque), 109 (Abetment), 34 (Common Criminal Intention) PPC r/w Section 3 & 4 of AML Act, 2010 (Money Laundering) aagainst the accused persons.