LHC dismisses pre-arrest bail petition of Zarco Exchange chief

The Lahore High Court on Thursday dismissed the pre-arrest bail of ZARCO Exchange Company, chief Lakht-e-Hussain, for his alleged involvement in foreign currency exchange scam. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials arrested him outside the courtroom after the bench comprising Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry announced "Lakht-e-Hussain's bail petition stands dismissed."
The court rejected his bail application after hearing lengthy arguments from both sides and complaints of the affected persons. During the course of arguments, US national Lakht-e-Hussain's counsel Ali Zafar said his client had committed no fraud rather he invested 200 million rupees in Pakistan in 2003 after State Bank of Pakistan issued him a license, authorising him to deal in foreign currency exchange. He said FIA officials raided ZARCO's Ravi Road office in July and arrested seven employees while four of them had been enlarged on bail by trail court.
He said FIA officials had also seized the main computer server through which the company was connected to 126 countries, which resulted in complete closure of company's business and caused delay in making payment to people. He said no role attributed to Lakht-e-Hussain in FIR neither he committed any crime. He said the company had set up a system in which one person pays money in a foreign country and next moment his money is paid in Pakistan to an authorised person.
He pointed out that his client was residing in America but he came to Pakistan voluntarily to contest the case that showed his bona fide intention. He said SBP was also keeping a vigilant eye on company as audit reports were submitted to the state bank on regular basis.
The counsel said his client also lodged FIR against employees of his company after he got information that they had committed embezzlement. FIA counsel pointed in his arguments that crackdown against ZARCO and other companies were launched on the directions of SBP and federal government.
He said ZARCO officials committed fraud to people on a massive scale since its inception in 2003 as it was submitting fake audit reports to SBP and this fact was substantiated from data collected from the seized server. At this, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry said case should also be registered against FIA and SBP officials, as they had not taken action against the company for seven years.
Apparently, it seems that FIA officials would mint money from this scam while the affected persons would remain wandering from here to there in search of their hard-earned money. Continuing, the counsel said as per preliminary investigation, ZARCO had committed fraud to the tune of Rs 43 billion. He said the company owed Rs 90 million to affected persons, Rs 110 million to its franchised offices and Rs 500 million to Western Union.
He said Lakht-e-Hussain is the owner of 99.99 shares of the company and he is responsible to discharge all liabilities. After completion of counsels' arguments chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif allowed some of the affected persons to make this submission.
Dr Hammed ud Din, told the court that he had sent amount of $12000 to his son in Ukraine on July 2 but the money had not reached him so far. A young lady also came forward and said that ZARCO especially Lakht-e-Hussain had defrauded him to the tune of Rs 2.5 million. There was pin drop silence in the courtroom when people were telling their sad stories of how ZARCO officials cheated them. The situation made the judges gloomy who rejected accused bail and hurriedly rushed to their chambers.