The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) submitted its investigation report at the Westminster Magistrate Court on Monday, requesting to quash its earlier order freezing the bank accounts of PML-N leaders — Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Shehbaz. These accounts were frozen in December 2019 at the joint request of Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) led by Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability Shehzad Akbar. The Pakistani government's ARU, in a letter written to the National Crime Agency UK on December 11, 2019, had levelled serious corruption allegations against Shehbaz and his son Suleman. The NAB and the ARU had claimed that former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz and his son were involved in “double criminality” and money laundering of more than Rs35 billion. Also read: Shehbaz, family may have embezzled, laundered UK aid money: British paper Double criminality involves laundering ill-gotten money and later bringing it back to the same country. The allegations of fraud, criminal conduct and money laundering were levelled and consequently, five accounts were frozen by the NCA in December 2019. The NCA probed the five accounts for around two years through its International Command Unit investigating the accounts and transactions in the UK, Dubai and Pakistan. In their report submitted to the Westminster Magistrate Court, the NCA acknowledged that it could not find any proof of criminal conduct yet, requesting to set aside the accounts freezing orders. There is a separate civil case still in process in which David Rose, a Daily Mail journalist alleged that Shehbaz as Punjab CM had embezzled the funds of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.
from Pakistan News, Latest News Pakistan, Pakistan Headline | eTribune https://ift.tt/3ALOhv6
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