LAHORE: The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Thursday blacklisted Chinese company Jiangsu Yabaite Co Ltd and fined it 900,000 yuan for alleged forgery and fraud.

According to a press release, Yabait had claimed that it had earned Rs2.5bn from the Multan Metro Bus project and sent it to China.

Highlighting the claim of the Chinese company, a section of of the Pakistani media said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was involved in money laundering and had sent a huge amount of kickbacks to China through Yabaite.

Shahbaz had condemned the media reports and served legal notices on some media organisations over alleged misreporting. The case of alleged money laundering was then referred to the FIA by SECP and later the NAB’s Multan wing launched an investigation into the project to look into money laundering, if any.

The Punjab government also held an inquiry into the allegations and learnt that Yabait had never worked for the Multan Metro project nor any project contractors had acquired its services at any stage.

The Chinese government investigated the matter and imposed a heavy fine on the company chairman and blacklisted it. Its other officials were also penalised.

The Yabait, through a letter, has confessed to committing the crime and accepted the sentence given by the Chinese government. It admitted that the money sent to China by it has no connection with Metro Bus and this letter is available at company’s website.

The CSRC official website also contains the Yabait letter.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2017