NCA told court money-laundering investigation of Sharifs ‘based on’ correspondence with ARU

LONDON: The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court that it froze assets of Sharif family members in its high profile money-laundering investigation “based on the correspondence with the ARU”, according to a court paper.

In the court document that was put before a judge at the London court seeking permission of the court to extend the Assets Freezing Order (AFO) to continue investigating Shahbaz Sharif and his son Suleman Sharif, the NCA told the court the following about the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) of Pakistan: 

“The grounds to suspect the frozen funds constituted recoverable property, was based on the correspondence with the ARU, media reporting at the time in Pakistan, and the perceived inability for Suleman Sharif (SS) and Miah Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif (MMSS) to work legitimately in the UK given their visa status.”

The NCA application went on to state: “District Judge Tanveer Ikram (DJ Ikram), whilst remarking that some of the information such as the media reporting was tentative, stated he was satisfied on the information that there were reasonable grounds to suspect the funds constituted recoverable property.”

The NCA application, a part of which was shown in the "Naya Pakistan" show conducted by Shehzad Iqbal on Geo News, also informed the judge that a copy of the original Account Freezing Order application was available on request.

The application also confirmed that the NCA was conducting a probe in Pakistan to “establish the exact nature of the various investigations” into Suleman Sharif and that Shahbaz Sharif and Suleman Sharif have “committed offence contrary to Sections 327, 328 and 329 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002”.

The NCA informed the court that “Pakistan Law Enforcement have confirmed they are willing and able to assist in future investigations”.

The application to request the continuation of freezing orders on the assets was filed before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court a year after the original freezing orders of December 2019 were about to expire, which were granted by the court to investigate accounts of Shahbaz Sharif at Habib Bank Limited UK and Barclays and Suleman Sharif’s accounts at HSBC and Barclays.

The extension application informed the judge that the NCA had received “significant material” on October 13 from Pakistan authorities in relation to the ongoing investigation into the criminal conduct of SS and MMSS in Pakistan. The material included a “Court Reference and Investigation Report”.

The NCA told the court: “This investigation report concerns the acquisition of criminal property by MMSS and his wider family totalling Pakistan Rupees 7,328,000,000 (approximately GBP 35 million). The offences alleged in Pakistan are: accumulation of assets disproportionate to known sources of income as defined in section 9(a)(v) of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999; Money Laundering as defined in section 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) 2010; Receipt of funds through dishonest means (Rs 65 million) as defined in section 9(a)(iv) of NAO 1999; Aid, Assistance and Abetment in section 9(a)(xii) of NAO 1999.”

The extension application informed the court that Shahbaz Sharif was “arrested in Pakistan on 28 September 2020 in respect of the above investigation. He is currently held on ‘judicial remand’.”

On September 2021, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court’s Judge Mr Nicholas Rimmer set aside the two Accounts Freezing Orders (AFO) after the NCA filed a unilateral application before Judge Rimmer to declare that its two year investigation in jurisdictions of Pakistan, UK and Dubai found no evidence of money laundering and criminal conduct; that there was no case to present and no “recoverable asset” for the Government of Pakistan”.