Karachi, November 30 – The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has issued a notice branding Chairman Meinhardt Shahzad Naseem and CEO Omar Shahzad, the owners of the Singapore-based construction company Meinhardt, as absconders.
The FIA urges the public to come forward with any information regarding the whereabouts of the accused and report it to the FIA Commercial Banking Circle.
The FIA has officially listed the accused as wanted in both the FIA Commercial Banking Circle and the Sharah Faisal police station. Dr. Shahzad Naseem and Omar Shahzad are being pursued by the FIA in connection with a money laundering case involving significant sums invested by Pakistanis in the Creek Marina project back in 2007.
Dr. Shahzad Naseem initiated the residential project, named Creek Marina, in DHA Phase 8 in 2007. Seventeen years later, investors have neither received their promised flats nor seen a refund of their money due to the project’s non-completion. Those affected sought intervention from the FIA in this matter.
Meinhardt, a Singaporean company, had announced the commencement of a 6-star project in Defense Housing Authority (DHA) in 2005. The company, however, operated without proper registration with the Board of Investment and opened accounts in local banks. Collecting funds from the public for advance bookings, Meinhardt accumulated Rs. 2.5 billion from over 300 families.
Ongoing FIA investigations reveal that Meinhardt Singapore, through the Creek project, misappropriated billions of rupees from the public, established illegal bank accounts, and transferred over three billion rupees abroad. It has been discovered that Creek Marina Singapore was not a registered company in Pakistan and lacked registration with the Board of Investment.
Under the Money Laundering Act 2010 and Companies Act 2017, foreign companies are prohibited from opening bank accounts in Pakistan unless properly registered. However, Dr. Shahzad Naseem, a Singaporean citizen, managed to open an account in a local bank with the assistance of bank staff, using the name Creek Marina Singapore, and subsequently transferred funds abroad through this account.
Recently, the FIA has formally requested banking records of the accused from various banks to facilitate investigations into money laundering allegations related to the Creek Marina project. A case has been filed against the accused, Nasim Shahzad, and his son Omar Shahzad, in the Commercial Banking Circle for money laundering. To further probe the money laundering charges, the FIA Commercial Banking Circle has sent letters to the compliance heads of commercial banks, seeking information on the accused’s accounts, bank statements, credit/debit cards, vouchers, and details of transactions exceeding five hundred thousand rupees.
