Islamabad court convicts 3 in case of illegal funds transfer for Bahria Town projects

ISLAMABAD: A local court on Thursday convicted three persons, including a retired military officer and an official of Bahria Town, in a case involving illegal transfer of funds abroad for the construction of projects by Bahria Town.

The court sentenced the three convicts to one year’s imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs500,000 each.

The verdict was announced by Additional District and Sessions Judge Nasaruminallah Baloch after hearing the final arguments of both sides.

The three men who were convicted included Vice Chief Executive of Bahria Town, Col (retd) Khalilur Rehman, hawala dealer Imran Kaka and property dealer Mushtaq Ahmed.

The three were held guilty of violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of Pakistan for illegal transfer of funds abroad for the execution of projects by Bahria Town.

It was alleged in the case that the accused had sent the foreign exchange via illegal channels rather than authorised banking channels.

This conviction came after months when the same judge had convicted Rehman in another prominent money laundering case under Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2010.

In the former case, which was being probed by the Anti-Money Laundering Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency, Rehman was convicted of laundering about Rs1.6 billion. The court had awarded Rehman with 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and Rs25m fine, along with confiscation of property bought with laundered money.

As per the judgment, the accused person had used methods of layering and used third party in order to hide the source of "proceeds of crime".

As noted by the judge, the laundering of Rs1.6bn, organised nature of transactions and lack of any mitigating factors merited a maximum sentence in view of the economic damage done to society.

On Monday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seized Karachi's Bahria Icon Tower valued at around Rs100 billion in an important move in the ongoing anti-money laundering investigation of real estate magnate Malik Riaz.

In May, NAB attached 3,150 acres of land purchased for Bahria Town in Jamshoro district and a 67-acre villa of his son Ali Riaz.

In the same month, it had attached four more high-value properties of Bahria Town after orders of accountability court.