KARACHI: Another suspect implicated in a case pertaining to defrauding a Chinese firm has been remanded in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The investigating officer (IO) of the case on Tuesday produced the suspects, Javed Mahmood, who was allegedly picked up from a housing society in Malir, alongside prime suspect Syed Zeeshan Afzal Bilgrami, a local trader, after completion of his first remand, before Judicial Magistrate (South) Kashif Bhatti.

The IO informed the court that Javed was allegedly involved in providing forged documents, including inspection and quality certificates from SGS Pakistan Pvt Ltd, a sister concern of a reputable Geneva-based company. The documents were allegedly used to facilitate Zeeshan in withdrawing $413,293 (approximately Rs114 million) from a bank through a letter of credit (LC), he added.

He requested the court to extend the physical custody of the prime suspect to help apprehend other facilitators involved in the alleged fraud. He also sought the custody of Javed for further interrogation.

A local trader has been booked for ‘exporting zero-valued goods’ to China instead of chrome ore

Meanwhile, the defence counsels for suspects opposed the request of the IO and pleaded to remand their clients in jail custody.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the court granted a three-day remand of the suspects in the FIA custody for more investigation and directed the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing.

On Nov 20, the Corporate Crime Circle of the FIA registered a case against Zeeshan, proprietor of M/s Danzu Trader, under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The investigation agency took the step after conducting an inquiry on the complaint of a Chinese national identified as Corrine (Yunyan) Chen.

According to the FIR, the complaint was lodged through the counsel of the Chinese national, who alleged that suspect Zeeshan had signed a contract with M/s Jangse Provincial Foreign Trade Corporation China, to export 15,000 tonne of chrome ore lumpy in 20-foot containers against an agreed amount.

However, as the consignment reached China in March the complainant found that it was allegedly filled with “zero-valued goods” such as clay, gravel and stones instead of chrome ore lumpy.

It was revealed that the suspect had already defrauded the Chinese importer before the shipment reached China as he allegedly transferred the agreed amount into his other bank account by using the LC and other relevant documents.

During the inquiry pr­o­ceeding, the SGS Pakistan Pvt Ltd had declared the certificates submitted in bank in their name as “fa­b­r­i­cated and bogus”.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024