FIA summons NBP President, 18 top officials for questioning in financial scam

FIA summons NBP President, 18 top officials for questioning in financial scam

Shahid Aslam
January 26, 2022

FIA summons NBP President, 18 top officials for questioning in financial scam

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Karachi Zone has reportedly summoned 19 top officials of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) including its president Arif Usmani for their alleged role in “country’s biggest financial fraud”.

According to documents, seen by Bol News, those summoned for questioning by FIA include NBP President Arif Usmani, Chairman & Member Board HR & Remuneration Committee, (Group Chief HR) Asma Shaikh, Group Chief Int’l Banking Saad Ur Rehman Khan, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP/CIO) Amin Manji, Executive Vice President/Head Legal Mehnaz Salar, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP/CRO Adnan Aly Agha, Executive Vice President (EVP-RMG) Mudassir Hassan Khan, Executive Vice President (EVP-HRMG) Mirza M. Asim Baig, Executive Vice President (EVP-Compliance Group) M Abdul Moeed, Executive Vice President (EVP-Int’l Banking Group) Riaz Hussain, Executive Vice President (EVP- HRMG) Danish Bin Inbissat, Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) Abbas Ali Hatim, Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) S Kaleem A Riaz, Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) Ms. Nida Haider, Senior Vice President (SVP-Compliance Group) Moiz Uddin Khan, Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) Abdul Waheed Sabir, Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) Riazuddin and Senior Vice President (SVP-HRMG) Naeem Baloch for Wednesday.

On Sunday, January 23, 2022, FIA Karachi had arrested Mumtaz Hasan, founder of the Hascol Petroleum Limited (HPL), in Rs54 billion scam.

Director FIA Sindh Zone Amir Farooqi has told Bol News that a total of 30 suspects including present and former top officials of the NBP, HPL and other organisations had been booked. Farooqi termed the scandal one of the largest financial scams of the country committed by Hascol Petroleum Limited in connivance with the top management of NBP and other private banks.

Amir Farooqi told Bol News that from 2015 to 2020, the NBP and other banks extended loans and financial facilities worth billions of rupees to the HPL in violating banking laws, which amount to criminal breach of trust causing wrongful loss to the NBP/national exchequer and wrongful gain to HPL.

According to the senior FIA official, the total default amount of the HPL stood at Rs54bn, of which Rs18 billion pertained to the NBP alone.

Hascol’s credit line was increased by the NBP presidents and credit group officials from Rs2 billion to Rs18 billion against weak securities, he added.

“The NBP opened fake letters of credit (LCs) to the tune of Rs95 billion for Hascol in favour of Byco petroleum, Farooqi said, adding that the matter will be investigated separately. Apart from the NBP, the FIA official said that several other banks opened non-product LCs to the tune of Rs54 billion for Hascol.

Besides possible money laundering, the FIA is also looking into the possibility of tax evasion by Hascol of up to Rs5 billion.

“Purchase of Millions of dollars and Money transfer outside Pakistan in million dollars by CEO Saleem Butt and COO M Ali Ansari of Hascol is also on record,” Director FIA said, adding, dumping of petroleum products through middlemen is also on record which caused a loss of Rs 9 Billion to the company.

The HPL Company was incorporated by Mumtaz Hasan as a private limited company in 2001 for procurement, storage and marketing of local/imported petroleum products, chemicals and LPG. It was converted into a public utilized company in 2007 and in 2014, it was listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

In 2009, the HPL’s first significant borrowing started with Summit Bank and in 2014, the NBP gave it Rs2 billion.