LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has booked seven persons, including directors of a biscuit company and a bank official, on charges of money laundering, fraud and tax evasion.

According to the FIR, during the course of inquiry conducted by the FIA, CBC Lahore, it transpired that benami bank accounts were opened to evade taxes on sale transactions of billions of rupees and money laundering was also committed.

“The benami accounts were opened on the CNICs of Abdullah Maqsood, Arsalan Ahmad and Maqsood Ahmad by banker Mazhar Ejaz and other bank officials. After opening the accounts, sale proceeds worth billions of rupees of M/s Innovative Biscuits Pvt. Ltd. (the company) Lahore, having proprietors Sheikh Munir Hussain and Amir Raza, CEO and directors of the company, were parked initially in a different bank and later on transferred to benami accounts from where cash amounts were withdrawn,” it says.

During the probe, the genuine signatures of the account holders were found to be similar with their specimen signatures as per forensic report. Thus the benami accounts were opened with biometric verifications and routine signatures but operated with the proxy signatures, it says.

The account holder, Abdullah Maqsood, also got issued five pay orders worth Rs92 million from such accounts in his favour. The FIA says the sales proceeds worth Rs6.62bn of M/s Innovative Biscuits Pvt. Ltd, instead of depositing with the company’s declared accounts, were credited in the benami accounts to evade taxes, hence, resulted in loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.

During the inquiry, it transpired that the key role was played by bank officer Mazhar Ejaz as the benami accounts were opened, introduced and tagged by him.

A case has been registered against Sheikh Munir, Amir Raza, Abdullah Maqsood, Arsalan Ahmed, Maqsood Ahmed, Muhammad Umair Khan and Mazhar Ejaz under sections 409, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, 34 and 109 of PPC R/w 5(2) 47 PCA, 1947.

The FIA says it will determine the role of others bank officials, company staffers, private persons (if any) during the course of investigation. The FIA has arrested banker Mazhar Ejaz, and raids are underway to arrest other suspects.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2026