Singaporean Company Accused of Laundering Rs. 3 Billion from Pakistanis Showing them Dreams of their Homes

The easiest and more than one hundred percent perfect way to loot the public in Pakistan is to sell the dreams in Pakistan. There are many scams, frauds in which naive people are plundered of their life time earned money but the most popular is marketing of the dreams of homes. This is a trap that can never be escaped by the public. The trap is used in a so sophisticated manner that even the most careful people can not smell the fraud. The Thugs of Pure Land are exploiting the investor with International names.

The biggest example is Creek Marina project that has deprived the public of billions of rupees with no return to their dreams. Here the names of two highly trustworthy players were used to trap the public and the investor. 1- Singapore 2- Defense Housing Authority : How it was possible that the victims could be suspicious? They invested blindly and lost everything. 300 allottees are affected by the failure of Dr Shahzad Nasim and his accomplices in delivering the Creek Marina Project.

The FIA’s findings suggest that Creek Marina Pvt. Ltd.’s parent company Creek Marina Singapore PTE Limited is owned by Swiftearn Holding Limited, a shell company registered in the British Virgin Island. Further, the Panama Papers revealed that John George Collin Gee, a British banker of Singaporean origin and an expert of setting up offshore companies and money laundering, is the chief executive officer of Creek Marina.

Shahzad Nasim was only a staff of this company. But he is the culprit in a sense that Creek Marina was initiated by him as its Chairman.Shahzad Nasim is the owner of Creek Marina Pvt. Ltd. and he was an employee and not owner of MSPL at the time of grant of lease.More information can be acquired from DHA Karachi that is partner in the agreement.

The scam started in 2003 when Dr Shahzad Nasim, a Singaporean National and Meinhardt (MSPL) , a Singaporean company visualized the project of Creek Marina and initiated negotiations with DHA Karachi for the acquisition of 92,000 Sq. Yards of waterfront land in Phase 8 of DHA. The parties signed agreement on 27 Sep 2004.

According to the agreement, DHA was to transfer the Land to MSPL against deferred consideration of net floor area 15% of the project. MSPL would design, construct, market and develop the project consisting ot two high-rise towers to be completed in 9 years, that is 2013. Now when 10 long years more than the stipulated time period have gone, the public and investors find nothing on the ground to their extreme disappointment and loss of all their savings.

Moreover the agreement was changed later almost altogether that indicates no proper homework prior to start such a big project and non seriousness of the partners about the sentiments and miseries of the public who invested their everything here. Additional sections were added to the agreement and the major change was the completion timeline was split into 2 phases, first in December 2008 and second in December 2009. It means the project is 15 years late with no development and no hope.

MSPL entered another company CMPL as its subsidiary and DHA Sub-Leased the land to this new entrant CMPL on 5 May 2005. It was disclosed later that CMPL is not in any way owned by MSPL. This was another tricky act of MSPL. Again a third time alteration in the agreement was agreed by DHA when the project could not be kick started . Here too, 2 changes were made in the agreement.First CMPL/MSPL was to pay DHA Rs. 1 Billion upon which the deferred consideration was to decrease from 15% to 3.75% of net floor area. Second the project was now to be completed in 3 phases to be delivered in June 2011, Dec 2011 and June 2012.

 Shahzad Nasim and partners were so clever that they succeeded in opening of two bank accounts on the title of their company illegally with the connivance of the concerned bank managers. The foreign companies are required to get the approval of Board of Investment (BOI) before opening their account in Pakistani banks under the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act 1947, Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 and the Companies Act 2017.

MSPL, which was registered as an engineering and not a development firm in Singapore, was able to open multiple accounts in Habib Bank, MCB Bank, Meezan Bank and Silkbank to launder its ill-gotten earnings from Creek Marina project in connivance with the bank staff. This was sheer violation of the procedures laid down by State Bank of Pakistan. Shahzad Nasim as Chairman of Creek Marina was summoned by FIA Karachi on 27 June 2023 with complete record but he failed to abide by the legal orders and prove anything in his favor.

Federal Investigation Agency, on 23 June 2023 issued notices to Shahzad Nasim on his given residence address in Naval Colony Karachi through a Sub Inspector under section 160 CrPC The affected of the project brought the whole scam into the notice of the then Chairman Public Accounts Committee of National Assembly, Noor Alam Niaz who forwarded the application of the affectees to the Director General Federal Investigation Agency for investigation on 9 Aug 2023. The Chairman PAC noted in his letter to the DG FIA that if the irregularity is found the company may be blacklisted.

New Chairman PAC is expected to continue to pursue the inquiry against the fraud company so that the poor investors can get justice but certainly he will be elected only after the general elections are held and new National Assembly comes into existence. Therefore Caretaker governments of Sindh and Center are also supposed to do the needful to bring the culprits to book as early as possible.

MSPL/CMPL has not delivered a single apartment to its customers during the last 18 years. This mafia is also accused of laundering at least $2.7 million out of Pakistan to its associates identified as Nasim, Omar, Nudrat Mand Khan, Aisha Varsey, Salman Mand Khan, Richard Charles Coventry, Syed Asghar Ali Shah and Akbar Ai Shakir through fake accounts the company management was operating in local banks.The owners of the project have engaged in illegal conduct by using underground banking to take money out of Pakistan.

Reports in a section of media have already revealed that in December last year, Aisha Varsey and Salman Khan, impersonating as the officials of Creek Marina Pvt. Limited and MSPL, had allegedly minted a huge amount of money from the troubled allottees through creating dubious WhatsApp and Instagram accounts. The two accused, one of them, Varsey, recently having resigned from CMPL as a CEO, appeared to have no connection with any of the companies nor did they have any exposure in the field of real estate.

The role of DHA Karachi here is also debatable in a sense that the fraud company of Singapore duped DHA administration? There are  considerable irregularities in the manner the company worked with DHA. The allotment of public land worth 46 Billion Rupees to the fraudulent company against deferred consideration was done by DHA. It is strange and illegal that whilst contracting with MSPL, DHA had executed lease over valuable public land to companies which are ultimately owned by a single person” Nasim, who at the time was an employee and not owner of MSPL.The DHA had got its valuable land overridden with controversy by allotting it to Nasim.

This is only an overview of the large scale fraud of Meinhardt Singapore PTE Limited (MSPL) and its self-declared owners Shahzad Nasim and his son Omar Shahzad. Not only it is a big fraud but there are many other sub frauds and dozens of irregularities that if rightly investigated by the concerned authorities can prove how cruelly this mafia from Singapore has looted the public investors of Karach.

Both the father and son are already under the investigation of the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) for defrauding investors and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) plundering at least 3 billion rupees. Here question is , the poor investors from middle class families can be appeased for their heavy financial loss? They will get their money back?

Why these mafias are not apprehended before they cheat the investors? Where are the defects in our law and system that the fraud companies successfully snatch the people’s hard earn money with no fear of accountability? This is a test case for the government of Sindh, gov of Pakistan and concerned Authorities to make these fraud elements example for the others.

Syed Daanish Ghazi,Managing Partner,M/s. Ghazi & Magsi. Advocates, Barristers, Legal Consultants filed an application to the office of Chairman Public Accounts Committee Mr. Noor Alam Niaz on 19 June 2023. The same is available to Federal Investigation Agency that is investigating the allegations of “Stalled-Project, Corruption, Misappropriation of Public Lands, Siphoning-Off of Funds & Financial Irregularities/Money Laundering.” Lets see what comes out. Lets see justice prevails in this country or not?