CIT summons Suleman Shahbaz on 25th on money laundering charges

ISLAMABAD: The combined Inquiry/Investigation Team (CIT), comprising of FIA, SECP and SBP, has summoned Suleman Shahbaz Sharif (son of former CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif) on September 25, to investigate him in a criminal inquiry with respect to charges of money laundering and financial fraud against various sugar mills, relevant entities and individuals.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Directorate Punjab Zone has issued a letter No Misc/Sugar-Team/CIT/2020/1853 dated September 19, 2020 to Suleman Shahbaz. According to the letter, Suleman is cognizant of facts pertaining to the probe as per the information/evidences available with the CIT.

“You are hereby called upon to appear (in person) before the CIT and answer such questions as may be put to you truthfully and honestly, on Friday, 25th September 2020, 9:00 AM at FIA office, 1-Temple Road, Lahore without fail”, the letter says.

The call up notice further says, “You will be required to explain the huge structured deposits amount to over Rs9.2 billion (detected so far) into the bank accounts of your low-wage employees (peon, clerks, managerial staff etc) working under you in Ramzan Sugar Mills Ltd (RSML) and Al-Arabia Sugar Mills Ltd (ASML)”.

“You will also be required to explain the source of money (Rs9.2 billion) which was deposited into the aforementioned accounts (without any business consideration) and also the utilisation of this money. You may also be required to explain as to how and why yours low-wage employees (peon, clerks, managerial staff etc) – who were under your executive control as Director/CEO RSML & ASML, were able to suppress the statutory due diligence protocols of various banks to operate these high volume accounts and conduct high volume structured transactions, in an organised manner”, reads the notice.

“You will also be required to explain the financial due diligence measures you undertook as Director /CEO- RSML &ASML to oversee that money from extraneous sources is not comingled with legitimate business transactions”, the notice says.

According to the FIA’s notice, Mirza Adeel Baig, Sub-Inspector FIA Lahore, has been designated as the focal person at FIA office to facilitate Suleman Shahbaz’ appearance before the CIT.

“You are requested to bring along any/all documentary evidences in support of your claim pertaining to the above.

Failure to comply with this legal notice will entail that you have nothing to say in your defence and CIT may proceed to take cognizance against you on charges of money laundering on the basis of evidence available against you”.