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

ISLAMABAD: A local court on Thursday convicted three men, including a retired officer and a senior Bahria Town official, in a case regarding the illegal transfer of funds abroad for Bahria Town projects.

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

Additional District and Sessions Judge Nasaruminallah Baloch announced the verdict after hearing the final arguments from both sides.

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

The court found them guilty under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of illegally sending money abroad for various Bahria Town projects.

According to the prosecution, the accused violated provisions of the Act by transferring funds through illegal channels instead of authorised banking channels.

The latest conviction comes months after the same judge convicted Rehman in a separate high-profile money laundering case under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.

In that case, investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency’s Anti-Money Laundering Circle, he was found guilty of laundering approximately Rs1.6 billion. The same court sentenced Rehman to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a Rs25m fine, also ordering the forfeiture of assets and properties acquired through the laundered funds.

In its detailed judgment, the court held that the accused had systematically layered financial transactions and used third parties to conceal the origin of “proceeds of crime”.

The judge had observed that the laundering of Rs1.6bn, the organised nature of the transactions and the absence of mitigating circumstances warranted a maximum sentence due to the economic harm caused to society.

On Monday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took physical possession of Karachi’s Bahria Icon Tower, estimated to be worth around Rs100 billion, in a significant development in an ongoing anti-money laundering investigation against real estate tycoon Malik Riaz.

In May, NAB froze 3,150 acres of land acquired for Bahria Town in Jamshoro district, as well as the 67-acre villa of Riaz’s son Ali Riaz.

The same month, it had frozen four additional high-value properties of Bahria Town on the instructions of an accountability court. ...