KARACHI: A district court on Friday permitted the investigation authorities to check the alleged fake bank accounts of the Axact company, they traced in five different banks, sources said.
They said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had traced 34 accounts of the company, which were opened and maintained with fake identities in five banks.
Subsequently, the FIA approached the session judge of southern district seeking his permission to check those bank accounts and their transactions. The judge allowed the FIA to probe the bank accounts.
The sources privy to the investigators said that more experts were contacted from Islamabad and Lahore for scanning the computer records.
The FIA started probing the biggest ever IT scam of the country on the orders of the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. The ministerial orders came after the New York Times unearthed the alleged scam of Axact, the Pakistani IT company that was running the ‘fake degree empire’.
The forensic experts were working on the company’s seized computers to find out the shabby business deals and the other anomalies that might lead them to establish the veracity of the news report.
The investigation agency had also issued notices to Shoaib Ahmad Shaikh, the chief operation officer of the company, to appear at the FIA offices. Despite the two consecutive notices, Shaikh did not turn up to the office to record his statement.
Sources said that FIA would issue the third notice to the CEO and if he did not turn up, the court would be moved for issuing summons for his arrest.
The current inquiry was being done under three laws of Pakistan. It involved Electronic Transaction Ordinance (ETO) 2002, Anti-money Laundering Act and Pakistan Penal Code.
A US court had already ruled in favour of a default judgement motion filed against Axact, awarding around $690,000 (Dh2.5 million) in damages. The motion was filed by Student Network Resources Inc, Student Network Resources LLC, and Ross Cohen, who had filed counterclaims in response to a suit by Axact against their research websites.
