LONDON: The CEO of asset recovery firm Broadsheet, which years ago was contracted by General Musharraf to probe political opponents including the Sharifs, has issued an apology to the PML-N supreme leader through a video interview with GEO News for allegations of corruption.

“We found a lot of plundered wealth [linked to others], but I can categorically state after virtually 21 years of investigation that not one rupee was related to Mr Nawaz Sharif or any member of his family. If anyone says otherwise they are lying,” Kaveh Moussavi said.

“I have no hesitation in issuing an apology to the former prime minister for my being party to a scam and scandalous nonsense masquerading as the National Accountability Bureau,” Moussavi said, adding: “NAB is a fraud through and through.”

He also said Nawaz Sharif was “the victim of a scandalous witch-hunt”.

“When the facts change, I change my views,” he added.

Last year, on several occasions, Moussavi had claimed to have evidence of “corruption” against Nawaz Sharif, and had even claimed that the Sharif family approached him with a bribe.

The Sharifs denied the allegations, and even secured the payment of £20,000 (Rs4.5 million) in litigation costs last year from the firm after it was unsuccessful in its attempts to lay a claim on Avenfield apartments.

Broadsheet LLC was registered in the Isle of Man on June 20, 2000 and helped the Musharraf government and the newly-established NAB track down foreign assets purchased through alleged ill-gotten wealth. Owned by Moussavi, an Iranian-born former Oxford University academic, Broadsheet is now under his supervision after he initially funded the arbitration and previously served a year-long prison sentence in England for contempt of court in unrelated proceedings.

Broadsheet maintains that it was created to be a company specialising in the recovery of assets and funds and was, therefore, engaged to trace, locate and transfer such items back to the state.

“Twenty-two years ago when Musharraf asked us to investigate you [Nawaz Sharif], we were led to believe and started investigating, and at every turn we found that the investigation was sabotaged not because we were getting close but we because that the intention was a witch hunt,” he said in his recent video interview. “The National Accountability Bureau also subjected us to a fraudulent misrepresentation.”

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2022