PARIS, April 2: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), and the president of its French subsidiary Ullah Mashkoor, have been notified by French judicial authorities that they are being placed under investigation for their suspected participation by NBP in a major international money-laundering scheme.

According to court papers signed on Jan 21 by Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, but made public only recently, the NBP joins a list of several other banks, including American Express, Societe Genrale, Societe Marseillaise de Credit, Leumi Bank of Israel, Banque Saradar and Banque Populaire, which are accused of “aggravated money-laundering” (blanchiment aggrave).

The scheme involved several shops and boutiques located in the Sentier, the fashion district of Paris, which were used - as were allegedly their banks, for example, NBP - as fronts for illegal transfers of money between France and Israel, where the laundered funds were deposited in bank accounts at a number of institutions, notably First International Bank of Israel and the Union Bank for Savings and Investment.

Mashkoor and his French associate Jacques de Goulet, who was also placed “under examination” (en examen) for their role in the scheme, have been forbidden from any continued association with the NBP or any other French bank. The interdiction, as confirmed by the Commission bancaire, the watchdog authority of the Banque de France, the national bank of France, has been challenged by Mashkoor who has filed suit before the French Conseil d’Etat.