Lahore (March 16, 2018): The National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Lahore office has summoned Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to the United States Ali Jahangir Siddiqui on March 22 over embezzlement charges.
A notice issued to Siddiqui accuses him of causing losses of Rs40 billion to investors. Among the charges is that Siddiqui, as director of investment firm Azgard Nine Ltd, was “siphoning off funds amounting to €23.758 million in 2008 for the purchase of an Italian company, Monte Bello SRL, using a foreign company, Fairytal SRL Sweden, which resulted in a loss to the company and shareholders.”
Siddiqui will also be asked about selling shares of Agritech Ltd to different financial and government institutions by Azgard Nine at a higher price than market price to settle the loan defaults of the company, which resulted in an approximate loss of Rs40 billion to the institutions.
In 2016, a Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) report said that prices of Azgard Nine group’s shares were artificially increased from Rs24 to Rs70, and payments were also made to an unidentified party.
Siddiqui was scheduled to assume his new responsibilities as Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington next month as incumbent Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry reached retirement age a few days ago. Siddiqui is currently a special adviser to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
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