The Federal Investigation Agency has filed a final charge sheet against the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other senior officials of Axact in a sessions court on Thursday. The charge sheet also includes allegations against the software company for providing fake degrees.
The alleged officials include CEO Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Senior Managers Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Muhammad Sabir, Zeeshan Ahmed and 14 others who were working with the software firm Axact. In May last year, the same people were allegedly accused of preparing and selling fake degrees, diplomas and accreditation certificates of fictitious universities through an online system. The Axact group allegedly made millions of dollars via their fraudulent service.
Read More: A refresher on the Axact case
The final investigation report has now been filed, about eight months after the submission of the interim report, by the FIA that features forensically extracted information from the Axact databases, for the period 2010 to 2015, revealed that degrees and diplomas from fake US-based universities were issued to over 240,000 students from several countries. These universities never really existed anywhere in the USA. The company allegedly earned $205 million through the fraudulent international education scam.
The shipment records from the company’s main server were also verified from the courier service. The bogus status of the educational institutions was confirmed by the US authorities. Axact had also set up three shell companies in the region named Mivvel Inc., Tinko Inc, and Tullow Inc., said the report. There were several other tertiary firms formed under these companies.
The amount made from selling these fake degrees was deposited to these three companies’ accounts. The ownership of these companies was confirmed by the accused people.
The additional judge of Karachi South District accepted the charge sheet and adjourned the hearing till the third week of March. The court has also asked the FIA Assistant Director Saeed Ahmed Memon, who is investigating the case, to produce the witnesses at the next hearing.
The case was registered against the suspects, M/s Axact FZ LLC, UAE, and others at the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi. The charge sheet was filed under sections for cheating and dishonestly, inducing delivery of property, forgery for purpose of cheating, using as genuine a forged document, making counterfeit seal, intent to commit forgery punishable under section 467 and 473, intent to commit forgery punishable otherwise, having possession of document described in section 466 or 467 knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine, falsification of accounts, abetment and common intention. Pakistan Penal Code and sections 36 and 37 of the Electronic Transaction Ordinance, 2002 were also included.
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