#SuisseSecrets: List of Pakistanis hiding wealth in Swiss Bank

A leak from a Swiss bank has revealed that around 1,400 individuals residing in Pakistan are linked with around 600 accounts opened in Credit Suisse.

The average maximum balance in accounts held by Pakistanis was 4.42 million Swiss francs (Rs841 million) compared with the overall average of the leaked data, which stood at 7.5 million Swiss francs (Rs1.42 billion). Almost 200 clients found in the data are worth more than 100 million Swiss francs (Rs19 billion) and more than a dozen had accounts valued in the billions.

Fact Focus, an organisation that covers factual, data-driven stories, published an investigative report by Usman Manzoor, where Organized Crimes and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigations of #SuisseSecrets names hundreds of wealthy Pakistanis stashing wealth in secret Swiss bank accounts.

The report highlights the names of the Pakistani army generals, government officials, businessmen, and journalists.

Army Generals:

“General Akhtar Abdul Rehman and General Zahid Ali Akber were part of the infamous The Jalandhar Group or The Gang of Four which was also part of the coup which overthrew Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s democratic government and later hanged him through the judiciary to have smooth sailing,” reports Facts Focus.

“The other two officers of this ‘The Gang of Four’ were General Zia ul Haq and General Rahimuddin. All these four were closely related through the marriages of their children. General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s son Akber and General Zia’s son Ijaz ul Haq are married to the daughters of General Rahimuddin. General Rehman’s son Haroon Akhar is married to the daughter of General Zahid Ali Akber.”

The OCCRP’s #SuisseSecrets investigation has also verified the old US paper’s report that the “CIA’s covert Soviet war aid had made rich sugar daddies out of Pakistani generals.”

“General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s three sons have been named in the #SuisseSecrets for opening Swiss accounts during the Soviet-Afghan war in the mid-1980s. General Akhtar, besides heading ISI, also headed the five-member committee that directly dealt with the CIA’s money to supply weapons to the mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.”

Politicians:

“Punjab’s Finance Minister, Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat, and his brother Omer Sheharyar. They maintained a bank account for 11 months from 2011 to 2012. A sum of 2,765,038 Swiss Francs rested in this account.”

“Senator Gulzar Ahmad Khan (late) and his two senator sons Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan and Senator Ammar Ahmad Khan family opened an account at Credit Suisse in 2008. They held 9,786,955 Swiss Francs in it. The account was closed in 2013. This account remained unheard from FBR and the Election commission of Pakistan.”

“Senator Haji Saif Ullah Khan Bangash, a PPP senator (now deceased) maintained a maximum balance of 105,137,413 Swiss francs millions in 2009. NAB has filed a corruption reference against Bangash on bank fraud charges in 2010. Bangash’s sons, Shaukat Ullah Khan and Kifayat Ullah Khan were co-accused in this NAB reference. Kifayat Ullah Khan is a banker based in Geneva. This account was opened on November 03, 2008, and was closed on December 21, 2011.”

Journalist:

“Anchorperson Rana Mubashir and his wife Irum Mubashir also opened a bank account in Credit Suisse on October 03, 2008. The account had a maximum balance of more than one million dollars in May 2010. The account was closed on November 29, 2011. Rana Mubashir hasn’t responded to the queries sent to him by OCCRP.”

Businessmen:

“Sultan Ali Lakhani of Lakson Group who also owns Express Media Group has also surfaced in the #SuisseSecrets. Sultan along with Zulfiqar Lakhani and Amin Muhammad Lakhani held 10 individual and joint accounts with their immediate family members between 2001 and 2010.”

“Cumulatively, they held almost 58, 626, 841 Swiss Francs (Around 60 Million dollars) in their accounts. Besides the three above-mentioned Lakhanis, others named in the Data Leak include Gul Bano Lakhani, Alizeh Lakhani, Anusha Lakhani, Fatima Lakhani, Anika Amin Lakhani, Saira Amin Lakhani, Babar Ali Lakhani, Bilal Ali Lakhani, Misha Lakhani, Shaista Lakhani, and Clinton Raven.”

“The OCCRP data shows that the Schon family also held two Swiss accounts. The first account was opened on November 07, 2001, when Nasir Schon and his brother were facing a loan default case. This account remained operational until September 10, 2010, and had a maximum balance of 477,140 Swiss francs. Another account was opened on August 05, 2010, and remained operational until January 01, 2015, and it has a maximum balance of 1,023,261 Swiss francs in September 2010. Responding to OCCRP questions, Schons acknowledged they held the accounts and said there was nothing wrong with it.”