FIA unearths 42 fake, benami accounts linked to Moonis Elahi

Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has unearthed as many 42 benami and fake bank accounts associated with Moonis Elahi in RYK/ Alliance Sugar Mills Group money-laundering and corruption case.
According to the challan submitted by the FIA in the banking crimes court, a number of fake and benami bank accounts used Moonis for laundering proceeds of crime were unearthed.
The agency claimed that these bank accounts were involved in multiple direct transactions with the companies owned/controlled [directly and through family members/ subsidiaries], exposing the “link between the benamis and the accused Moonis Elahi.”
It also claimed that these bank accounts have interacted with the bank accounts of the companies namely Hayat Khan Pvt. Ltd., Agro Tractors Pvt. Ltd., and Bahera Pvt. Ltd. All these companies, according to the challan, are owned/controlled [directly/indirectly] by Moonis Elahi.
“The same benamidars were used to acquire, layer and disguise the trail of shares of RYK Sugar Mills Ltd.,” the FIA alleged in the challan.
Records of six bank accounts opened in the name of Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti, a government official working as a Naib Qasid, and Mazhar Abbas, a grade-17 officer of the land records department, were also acquired by the FIA. Names of nine alleged benamidars of Moonis were also included in the record.
Total turnover of transactions in the accounts of Nawaz, who is the close relative of Punjab CM’s Muhammad Khan Bhatti, is around Rs24 billion.
The FIA also found record of transactions worth tens of millions in the account of Qisar Iqbal Bhatti, a peon in Punjab Assembly.