KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has taken notice against terminal operators and shipping companies in Rs 15 billion mega demurrage and detention scam and started legal action against the accused in this regard.
FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi has started legal procedure by issuing a letter No FIA/CCCK/VRF-52/2018/5486-87 in this case. Another complaint received by the FIA demanded legal action against Søren Skou, Claus V. Hemmingsen, Søren Toft, Vincent Clercp, Morten H. Engelstoft, others of Maersk Line; Arslan Khan, Ghazanfar Khan, Raheel Salim, Maqsood Ul Hasan Khan, Fuad Khan, Hasan Faraz, Shakeel Masih, Omer Khan, Ali Jawad Alvi, Zafar Iqbal, Ayesha Chowdhry, Zahid Hussain, Salman Ahmad, Aamir Ali, Umais Aziz Khan, Mohammed Naeem, Farheen Mahmud, Mubasshar Iqbal, Affaq Syed, Syed Mohammad Abbas Jafri, Muhammad Tanveer Sharif, Salman Ateeq, Hamza Haq, Ziad Mahboob, Aamir Ibrahim, Yasir Saeed Khan, Amal Sadiq Dawood, Effat Mehmood, Maria Urooj, Zain Warsi, Mehreen Zulfiqar, Awais Saleem, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Osman Iqbal Zaidi, Anum Yaqub, Fahad Ali, Obaid Iqbal, Zahid Hussain, Muhammad Ali Qureshi, Danish Siddiqui, Amir Arif, Arshad Ayub, Syed Mudassir Ali, Syed Hammad Hussain, Ayesha Qadri, Sheikh Samiullah, Yasmin Fasih, M A Rahman (Captain), Yumna Nadeem, Tanveer Hasan, Fazlur Rehman, others of M/S Maersk Pakistan Private Limited & others to recover Rs. 15 billion earned by them through mass cheating.
As per the complaint received by the FIA, the nexus of some Customs staff and shipping lines including M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, including its owners, managers & staff are making illegal money through malpractice.
The complaint said, “Our firm, through our shipper, handed the goods in above consignments to Maersk Line as trust to be delivered and released to us here at Karachi. The shipping line nominated M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd as their regional office agent at Karachi for the same. Our firm also long back paid in full to the shipping lines the ocean freight charges as agreed between the parties. But despite repeated reminders by our firm and visiting office of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, they did not release the goods to our firm yet”.
“To our firm’s surprise, now they have flatly refused to release our goods which clearly a criminal breach of trust. Now we have realized that the accused persons lure, cheat and conspire against thousands of Pakistan importers to first take the custody of the goods as trust and then blackmail, threaten to loot more money from them and also going to the extent of misappropriating the goods given to them as trust so as to make wealth through criminal means. The amount earned by the subject accused through cheating thousands of importers of Pakistan exceeds a whopping Rs. 15 billion. This tantamount to mass cheating and other offences falling within the jurisdiction of FIA,” the complaint said.
The complaint said, “The businessmen of Pakistan lose daily due to non-availability of the said goods, reputation loss, loss of customers, etc. and also the goods quality deteriorate daily and lead to total loss very soon if the goods are not disposed in the markets. Our firm has reminded them repeatedly but has now lost all hopes in getting back the goods given to them as trust. It is pertinent to mention here that the Government of Pakistan vide its certificate under section 14A of the Customs Act, 1969 has already advised them not to charge us any demurrage or detention which makes their excuse of not releasing the goods under any pretext whatsoever clearly illegal and also makes our FIR / legal action against them even stronger under the law”.
“The actions of Maersk Line through its owners, management and staff including but not limited to SørenSkou (CEO), Claus V. Hemmingsen (Vice CEO), others and of M/sMaersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., Karachi through its owners, management and staff including but not limited to Arsalan Khan (MD/CEO), Ghazanfar Khan (Head of Sales), Raheel Salim (Head of HR), Maqsoodul Hasan Khan (Accounts Executive),Fazlur Rehman (Manager Claims & Legal),others, individually and jointly, tantamount to conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, mischief to cause losses, threatening, etc., which attract various penal sections cognizable by FIA”.
The complaint demanded from the FIA to take legal action against the subject accused persons, recover amounts looted by them to the tune of Rs. 15 billion per year and stop further losses.