On September 7, a special court will indict PM Shehbaz and Hamza in a Rs16 billion money laundering case.
A special court in Lahore set September 7 as the date for the indictment of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shahbaz, and others for their alleged participation in Rs16 billion in money laundering in the sugar scam case.
Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman were arrested in November 2021 by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34, and 109 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of the Anti Money Laundering Act. Suleman Shehbaz has escaped to the United Kingdom. Suleman’s property information were filed in court today, after he was designated a proclaimed criminal in the multibillion-rupee money laundering case.
The FIA filed a challan against Shehbaz and Hamza in December 2021 before the special court for their alleged participation in the laundering of Rs16 billion in the sugar scam case.
The investigating team, according to the FIA report provided to the court, has “uncovered 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family used for money laundering totaling Rs16.3 billion between 2008 and 2018. The FIA investigated the cash trail of 17,000 credit transactions.”
According to the investigation, the money was maintained in “secret accounts” and “paid to Shehbaz in a personal capacity.”
It claimed that this sum (Rs16 billion) has nothing to do with the Shehbaz family’s sugar industry. The money Shehbaz collected from the accounts of low-wage employees was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, eventually targeted for the benefit of his family members, according to the FIA.
“Eleven low-paid Sharif group employees who ‘held and possessed’ the laundered funds on behalf of the main suspects have been found guilty of assisting money laundering. The Sharif group’s three other co-accused actively assisted money laundering as well “According to the agency.