KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency filed in a sessions court on Thursday what it termed a final charge-sheet against the chief executive officer and other senior officials of a software company in a case about fake degrees.

CEO Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, managers Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Mohammad Sabir and Zeeshan Ahmed and 14 other officials/employees of software firm Axact were booked in May last year for allegedly preparing and selling fake degrees, diplomas and accreditation certificates of fictitious schools/universities through a fraudulent online system and illegally minting millions of dollars.

In the ‘final investigation report’ filed about eight months after the submission of an interim report, the FIA alleged that evidence forensically extracted from database of Axact from 2010 to 2015 showed that diplomas and degrees of fake universities based in the US had been issued to over 240,000 students of different countries. The company earned more than $205 million in the process.

The shipment record of the degrees extracted from the company’s main server data was also verified from the courier service firm, the report said, adding that the bogus status of these educational institutions was confirmed by the US authorities and it appeared that Axact had set up three primary shell companies as well as various tertiary firms in the US.

According to the charge-sheet, the money earned from the sale of fake certificates was deposited in the accounts of these companies and their ownership had been confirmed by the detained suspects. Moreover, it said, a Saudi student sent a complaint alleging that the company had defrauded him by selling a degree of a fake online institution.

The additional district and sessions judge (south) admitted the FIA report for hearing.

The case was registered against the suspects, M/s Axact FZ LLC, UAE, and others at the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly, inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 472 (making counterfeit seal, etc, with intent to commit forgery punishable under section 467), 473 (making counterfeit seal, etc, with intent to commit forgery punishable otherwise), 474 (having possession of document described in section 466 or 467 knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and sections 36 and 37 of the Electronic Transaction Ordinance, 2002.

The interior minister had ordered an inquiry against Axact after The New York Times published a report accusing the company of selling fake diplomas and degrees online through hundreds of fictitious schools and making “tens of millions of dollars annually”.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2016