ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court hearing a multi-billion rupees fake bank accounts case on Tuesday declared Younas Kidwai, who is suspected to be a front man of former president Asif Ali Zardari, a proclaimed offender in the Sindh Bank corruption case. The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the case, declared Kidwai a proclaimed offender, and ordered to block his national identity card. The officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that they were collecting records related to Kidwai's "escape" abroad.

The court has adjourned hearing of the case till September 7th and also deferred the verdict on the acquittal pleas of eight accused, including former Sindh Bank president Bilal Sheikh, till September 7th. The court said that the verdict on the plea would be pronounced on September 7th.

The accountability court has also sought the travel record of fugitive accused Kidwai. According to a joint investigation report of fake accounts case a project loan of Rs1 billion was disbursed to M/s Rubicon Builders (Pvt) Ltd on December 1, 2014 by the Sindh Bank. However, these funds were diverted from the stated purpose and routed through various fake accounts through multiple split transactions (Smurfing technique of layering/money-laundering) on the same date, and transferred to the account of Nasser Abdullah Lootah. It was then "injected into Summit Bank as equity".

As per the report, it is noteworthy that M/s Rubicon is owned by Younas Kidwai (a trusted front man of Asif Ali Zardari) and Aslam Masood (CFO, Omni Group). "Evidence" pertaining to close nexus between Younas Kidwai and Asif Ali Zardari has been dealt with in various sections of the report.

Hence, M/s Rubicon is a "shady" company "controlled" by Asif Ali Zardari, and was directly involved in "misappropriation" and diverting loans into Summit Bank as (laundered) equity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020