KARACHI, Feb 1: A Briton allegedly involved in one of Pakistan’s biggest bank frauds, involving $150 million, was formally indicted on Saturday by Judge Ikram Hussain Jafferi of the special court for banking offences.
Samuel Tennent, who was arrested on April 4, 1998 and has been on bail since December ‘98, denied involvement in the fraud case and opted for trial.
The judge fixed Feb 22 for the hearing and issued notice to the Federal Investigation Agency to produce prosecution witnesses.
The 54-year-old Britisher was arrested in Pakistan with the assistance of the City of London Police, who had detected the fraud in London initially and arrested principal accused Dr Mohammed Haroon Rasheed, a naturalized American of Pakistani origin, who was running the Tacoma Group.
It was alleged that the accused were intending to purchase the Washington Hotel in London for 25 million sterling on forged guarantees of the National Bank of Pakistan.
The fraud was detected when the internal auditor of the NBP in London forwarded to the head office 15 bank guarantees, in the sum of $10 million each, purportedly issued by the NBP in Pakistan in favour of Dr Haroon Rasheed.
The NBP said the guarantees, having a face value of $150 million, were fake and referred the matter to the City of London Police Fraud Squad.
Later, the London police arrested Dr Haroon Rasheed in a hotel, where he had been staying for over a year.
The forged NBP guarantees had been circulated through Midland Bank and Llyods Bank and they were verified on the requests of these banks.
Dr Haroon Rasheed has already been sentenced to a five-year term by the Crown Court of London.
Two detectives of the City of London Police — Tony Freeman and Henry Jacques — had also visited Pakistan in connection with their investigation against the Tacoma Group of Dr Haroon Rasheed.
Samuel Tennent was tracked down by the FIA investigator, Khalid Jamil, who is also the investigation officer in this case.
Later, the Briton obtained bail from the High Court.
Two accused — Usman Fayyaz and Syed Muzaffar Shah — had been shown absconders in the interim charge-sheet. However, later accused Shah was arrested and sent to the judicial custody. But he died in the Central Prison.
