FBI set up Karachi business tycoon Jabir Motiwala in fake drug charges, claims former agent

• Former FBI agent Kamran Faridi alleges that FBI created problems to stop him from becoming a UK court witness to support Jabir Motiwala.
• Kamran Faridi tells court that he was asked by FBI to "set up" the business magnate on "fake charges". 

LONDON: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "set up" Karachi-based tycoon Jabir Motiwala in a "fake drugs case", a former agent of the American security service has claimed.

The former agent — Kamran Faridi — has also claimed he has "irrefutable evidence" proving Motiwala's innocence.

Faridi, a Pakistani-American, has alleged that the FBI created problems to stop him from becoming a UK court witness to support Motiwala, a Pakistani national who has been imprisoned in a London jail for almost three years.

Read more: Jabir Motiwala granted appeal right against extradition to US

According to a court document seen by Geo News, the man submitted in court that he was asked by his former employers at the FBI to "set up" the business magnate on "fake charges". Motiwala, he claims, did not do or say what the FBI has reported.

The 'set-up'

Three Pakistani-American FBI informants — described as CS1, CS2, and CS3 in the court papers — travelled to Karachi in 2010 to hold meetings with Motiwala to "set him up in a drug-smuggling deals" in America.

The US government said these meetings were secretly recorded, without Motiwala's consent.

The tycoon, however, suspected he was being entrapped and had reported the same to the Pakistani authorities.

Read more: UK court clears Jabir Motiwala’s extradition to the US over drug trade

According to credible sources and a personal account shared with Geo News, the Pakistani-American informant has told his former employers at the FBI, as well as Motiwala’s lawyers, that he played "the most crucial role" in "setting up" the business tycoon in "agreeing to sell drugs" and "getting him involved in money-laundering".

Sources said that Faridi was now "willing to provide the evidence to prove the FBI framed the Karachi business magnate".

'Faridi refused entry into UK'

People close to the once senior spy have shared with Geo News that Faridi wished to meet Motiwala's lawyers in London to share the said "evidence". They also say that he is willing to become a witness for them in preventing Britain from extraditing the business magnate to the US.

They claimed that he was refused entry into the UK in March 2020 when he wanted to "come clean" about his involvement in the FBI "set-up".

Read more: FBI violated Pakistan laws by secretly filming Karachi businessman, UK court told

The agent was then returned to the US, where he was immediately arrested, charged, and imprisoned.

'Faridi not allowed to speak on behalf of his conscience'

Motiwala, on the other hand, has been imprisoned in London since his arrest back in August 2018 but was granted a right to appeal by the London registry of the High Court of Justice.

In the court paper seen by Geo News, Motiwala’s lawyers argued that Faridi was not given the opportunity to "speak on behalf of his conscience".

The former FBI agent has expressed a desire to take the polygraph test "to prove that the whole operation was a set-up and that the charges are fake".

Read more: US experts link Jabir Motiwala’s extradition with Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide

Back in July 2019, the prosecution had told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court that three FBI agents secretly recorded Motiwala over many years. They also claim that the business magnate travelled from Karachi to the US to meet them to set up a drugs deal.

Motiwala, they had claimed, was a "high-ranking" member of Indian mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim’s so-called D-Company — a name given to the underworld organised criminal syndicate he founded in Mumbai — but showed no evidence.

The prosecution added that the Karachi business tycoon did not carry contraband into the US but was a "facilitator" of four kilogrammes worth of drugs, which were seized in Canada.

Motiwala has denied all charges.

The London registry of the High Court of Justice will hear the case at the end of this month.