FIA summons Zardari, Talpur today in money laundering case

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur have been summoned by Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) today (Saturday) to record their statements in relation to a Rs35 million money laundering case.
Zardari and Talpur have been summoned by the agency’s commercial banking circle at 11am, FIA authorities told media.
The FIA had previously declared former president Zardari, Talpur absconders in the case.

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money-laundering from fictitious accounts, under which Zardari’s close aide and Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai was also arrested earlier this month.

The probe

The FIA inquiry started when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a ‘suspicious transaction report’ in January this year regarding ten bank accounts.
That over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at a private bank were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.
The amount according to FIA sources is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes. But despite these huge transactions, the bank authorities never reported them to the authorities concerned including the FIA.