Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) are probing the alleged fraud which has been brought into the notice of Sindh High Court in a Constitutional petition.
According to the documents, Belarusian nationals registered a company in Pakistan and opened an account in a private bank at Sharah-e-Faisal in the name of another countryman who was not present in Pakistan as evident from the signatures.
President Mamnoon Hussain who is the host of Belarusian President has also been informed about the alleged fraud committed by his countrymen. Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been requested to take up this issue with the visiting Belarusian President.
FBR has also been apprised that the signature of Kruhlenia Aliaksandr in Memorandum of Association did not match the signature in the passport as he never visited Pakistan while at the time the Memorandum of Association was signed he was wrongfully shown as residing in a local hotel.
In a constitutional petition filed by Shabeeh Ishrat Hussain, it is stated that M/s Shahzad Trade Links import tractors from Republic of Belarus and sell in the local market. The petitioner's visited Belarus recently wherein Kruhlenia Aliaksander, Director M/s MTW Pak Assembling Industries (Pvt) Limited, Slesarau Aliaksander, another Director of the company and Shvaichuk Hanna met with Mr. Shahzad Riaz of M/s Shahzad Trade Links and expressed an interest to establish a joint business in Pakistan.
After negotiations on February 9, 2015, a joint venture agreement was executed between M/s Shahzad Trade Link and M/s Belpaksnab a company duly incorporated in the Republic of Belarus and the JV was signed by Mr. Shahzad Riaz and Ms Shvaichuk Hanna being representative of M/s Belpaksnab.
The main objective of the joint venture was to sell tractors in Pakistan and to improve procedures for manufacturing and assembling tractors in Pakistan. It was agreed between the parties to form a joint venture and establish a private limited company with name of M/s MTW Pak Industries (Pvt) Limited).
Meanwhile, the petitioner had registered the company namely M/s MTW Pak Industries (Pvt.) Limited with the SECP after fulfillment of all requirements as required under the law. Both parties also signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Memorandum of Articles and Memorandum of Association.
The petitioner as the Chief Executive of the company also placed an order for procurement of 1500 tractors from Minsk Tractor Works, Belarus and after series of negotiations/correspondence the Director of Minsk Tractor Works sent a draft contact agreement and licence agreement for technical know-how which was accepted by the petitioner and after signature the contract was delivered to M/s Minsk Tractor Works.
Information has been provided to Inland Revenue (FBR) Karachi that another company with the name of M/s. MTW Pak Assembling Industries (PVT) Limited has also been registered with the SECP in connivance with the officials of SECP on the basis of forged signatures, fabricated documents and fake addresses and without proper clearance from Board of Investment (BoI) and Ministry of Interior as per law. FIA has already questioned the officials of SECP last week.
It has also been brought into the notice of SHC, SBP, FIA and SECP that Belarusian nationals allegedly submitted the request to open a bank account in a private bank on April 23, 2015 despite the fact that one of the signatories of the account obtained a visa on April 28, 2015 from Pakistan Embassy Moscow and has still never visited Pakistan.