Mystery deepens over who authorised payment of $1.5m

ISLAMABAD: Mystery deepens over who authorised payment of $1.5million that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) made to a wrong person while attempting to broker a settlement with Broadsheet LLC in 2008 because the firm went into arbitration after knowing this which resulted during a penalty of $28.7 million.

Audit objection continues to persist and a NAB spokesman feigned ignorance when inquired about the identity of authorising person.

The issue also figured during the arbitration proceedings conducted by Sir Anthony Evans, the judge engaged by Chartered Institute of Arbitrator in London for settling the contention between Broadsheet and NAB. In May 2008, Pakistan negotiated a settlement agreement with Jerry James. Broadsheet which was found out in Isle of Man (IOM) was ordered into liquidation in March 2005 because it owed substantial debts to its various service providers engaged for assets tracing, whereas the NAB had terminated agreement in 2003.

A businessman based in Colorado (US), James was originally a part of Broadsheet but wasn’t authorised to barter after liquidation. He formed a replacement company in Colorado with an equivalent name, Broadsheet LLC, and represented it because the successor of the dissolved one which it had been not. The fraudulent deal was completed by his getting into a sham settlement agreement on May 20, 2008 for the sum of $1.5 million which alleged to settle any and every one claims of Broadsheet against NAB. The settlement agreement and James’ affidavit were riddled with false and deceptive statements. for instance , he declared himself within the settlement agreement as a shareholder and beneficiary of “Broadsheet LLC under winding-up” and in his affidavit that he was “fully authorised to execute the settlement agreement.” actually , Broadsheet was a indebtedness company that had no shareholders, managers or operating agreement.

Nevertheless, in satisfaction of this sham settlement, Pakistani High Commission in London made payment on to James (not into the firm’s account) within the amount of $631,626 on May 20, 2008 and therefore the remaining amount of $868,374 through Compass Bank, Colorado on Michaelmas , 2008. This was despite the very fact that James had no authority to act on behalf or the sole relevant company, Broadsheet (IOM). The NAB hired Ahmer Bilal Soofi advocate for negotiating settlement, but he was kept faraway from the method . the primary cheque was delivered by Abdul Basit Khan, now former ambassador. He was then deputy High Commission in Pakistan High Commission, UK.

Soofi wasn’t available for comments, but a politician aware about his involvement said he was kept faraway from the payment matters. When asked the rationale , he said it had been probably to avoid delay of the payment because the lawyer could raise any objection. Basit declined to debate the matter terming it an old issue which is tough for him to remember . Another official, then posted in Pakistan mission there, said the High Commission was only under instruction to form payment as no other detail was shared.

“We were told that somebody named Jerry James would come to receive cheque. We were provided his basic details like passport number and full name. additionally , we were asked to rearrange telephonic conversation between him and a Law Ministry official before the payment was done,” he said. Asked with whom his conversation happened , the official replied: “somebody from Law Ministry.”

The arbitration judge was also not clear on who was the authorising person to approve this payment. “There is not any evidence of the identities of the person(s) who authorised signature of the settlement agreement on behalf of the respondents (NAB), and as found within the Liability Award “an executive decision was taken within NAB…by senior executives in NAB after it had been approved by a high-level committee within the govt and was authorised by the President of Pakistan,” noted the judge.

He has also endorsed that Soofi wasn't involved within the process although he was engaged for the aim . “The Settlement Agreement was authorised for NAB by an executive decision during which Soofi wasn't involved. there's no evidence on who the choice makers were. The (chairman) of NAB at that point was Mr (Naveed) Ahsan,” the judge wrote.

When these facts became known to the personal representative of Broadsheet, an Iranian-born former Oxford University academic Kaveh Moussavi, he took steps to possess the dissolution of Broadsheet put aside . a replacement Liquidator was appointed who authorised these arbitration proceedings against the NAB; the primary notice was served on October 23, 2009.