rtabasum2
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Proof of Benazir & Zardari’s Corruption
Posted on May 26, 2010 by alaiwah
What are those notorious Swiss cases which the SC has asked the government to reopen in its judgment against NRO?
The decision of the Swiss judge who found Benazir Bhutto and Zardari guilty of corruption and receiving kickbacks in SGS Cotecna case led to six months suspended sentence. Both appealed against it and when this appeal was about to be finalised, Musharraf bailed the couple out through NRO and withdrew these Swiss cases, so the couple was saved from punishment, but this does not mean that they did not commit any corruption.
Our worthy news anchors should have a look at this material and question PPP stalwarts who shamelessly lie during talk shows to defend their masters. The Law Minister Babar Awan should also consider before telling the Supreme Court that there were no cases in the Swiss Court.
Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari were held guilty of money laundering by the Swiss Court.
Investigation Judge Daniel Devaud in Geneva sentenced them to a six-month suspended jail term, fined them $50,000 each and ordered they pay more than $2m to the Pakistani Government.
He said they had illegally deposited millions of dollars in accounts in Switzerland, and ordered the money be returned to Pakistan.
The case relates to a 1998 indictment in which Benazir Bhutto was accused of having access to money obtained through kickbacks and commissions from two Swiss companies with contracts with the then Pakistani Government.
An investigation found several numbered accounts in Switzerland in which more than $11m had been deposited.
Benazir Bhutto strongly denied having had access to the accounts.
The couple’s lawyer, Farooq Naek, at the time described the order as “illogical, unreasonable, inconsistent with law, based on malafide
[bad faith] and … politically motivated.” He complained that the announcement had been made without notices having been served on either Benazir or Zardari.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3125277.stm
Published: 2003/08/05 11:37:01 GMT
BBC MMX
Diamond necklace exposed Bhutto money-laundering trail
Details emerged of how a 117,000 diamond necklace led to the Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari being convicted of money laundering by a Swiss court.
The pair were given suspended jail sentences of six months each and ordered to repay about 8m to the Pakistani government.
The Swiss investigating magistrate found that during her second term as PM she enriched herself or her husband with kickbacks from a government contract with two Swiss companies.
“There is no doubt that the behaviour of Benazir Bhutto and her husband is criminally reprehensible in Pakistan,” the magistrate, Daniel Devaud wrote in his sentencing order after the five-year investigation.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, says that in 1995 the two companies, SGS and Cotecna, took up a contract for customs inspection of goods being imported into Pakistan.
The judge cited letters showing that 6% of the amount paid by the Pakistani government under the inspection contract would be paid as commission to companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
One of these, Bomer Finances Inc, received $8.2m and another, Nassam Overseas Inc, received $3.8m, the judge found.
The beneficial owner of Bomer Finance is Asif Ali Zardari, but in reality she shares the assets with him and has the power of disposition, the judge said.
The beneficial owner of Nassam Overseas is Nasir Hussain, who at the time was Ms Bhutto’s brother-in-law, he added.
Evidence of Ms Bhutto’s role in Bomer Finance emerged from a visit to London during which she bought a diamond necklace at a Knightsbridge jeweller’s.
The 117,000 bill was paid partly in cash and partly with money from Bomer Finance’s account.
It was the only withdrawal made from the company’s account before its assets were frozen at the request of the Pakistani authorities.
The necklace was later found in a Swiss bank vault, and was also seized.
Under the judge’s ruling it must now be handed over to the Pakistani state.
Jeremy Carver, a lawyer who represented the Pakistani government five years ago in relation to Benazir, said that there were “at least half a dozen international cases at various stages in various pipelines, either in Pakistan, Switzerland or the United States”.
Benazir’s Rockwood estate at Brooke in Surrey, valued at 3.5m, is currently being sold by the Pakistani government.
She is believed to own four other properties in London.
This article was published on guardian.co.uk on Friday 8 August 2003.
Foreign cases that could haunt Bhutto
In 2003, the Geneva magistrate Daniel Devaud convicted Ms Bhutto of money-laundering.
In his judgment, he found she and her close associates received around $15m in kickbacks from Pakistani government contracts with SGS and Cotecna, two Swiss companies.
Mr Devaud sentenced Benazir and Asif Zardari to 180 days in prison, ordering them to return $11.9m to the government of Pakistan.
“I certainly don’t have any doubts about the judgments I handed down [which] came after an investigation lasting several years, involving thousands of documents,” he has told the BBC.
Benazir contested the decision, which was made in her absence, and the case is being reheard, with the former PM now facing the more serious charge of aggravated money-laundering.
Asked about the case, her officials told the BBC: “These allegations are part and parcel of a campaign of a character assassination. Ms Bhutto has not done anything illegal. She and Asif Zardari have defended themselves in every court in every country.”
Many in Pakistan assume the Swiss case will now collapse because of the deal struck between Ms Bhutto and President Musharraf.
Yet under Swiss law, even if the government of Pakistan stops co-operating, that would not automatically end legal proceedings in Switzerland.
Vincent Fournier, the Swiss judge in charge of the current case, told the BBC he planned to hand the case over to Geneva’s attorney-general.
A second international case involving Ms Bhutto is under way in England.
In this case, the government of Pakistan alleged that Benazir and her husband bought Rockwood, a $3.4m country estate in Surrey, using money from kickbacks.
Benazir and Zardari denied owning the estate for eight years. But in 2004, Mr Zardari suddenly admitted that it was his.
Then, in 2006, an English judge, Lord Justice Collins, came to an interesting, though by no means final, conclusion about the estate.
Whilst stressing he was not making any “findings of fact”, Justice Collins said there was a “reasonable prospect” of the government of Pakistan establishing, in possible future court proceedings, that Benazir and/or her husband bought and refurbished Rockwood with “the fruits of corruption”.
Asked by the BBC about Rockwood, Benazir’s officials denied any allegations of corruption, but gave no detailed response, although her husband’s lawyers told Justice Collins that Pakistan’s case was speculative.
The London case is a civil one. That means it could collapse should President Musharraf’s government decide not to pursue it.
Benazir also faces allegations concerning the United Nations oil-for-food scandal. In 2005, the Independent Inquiry Commission led by former US Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker found that more than 2,000 companies breached UN sanctions by making illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq before 2003.
Among them was a company called Petroline FZC, based in the United Arab Emirates. Mr Volcker’s inquiry found it traded $144m of Iraqi oil, and made $2m of illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Documents from Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau appear to show that Benazir was Petroline FZC’s chairwoman.
If these documents are genuine, and the oil-for-food allegations are proven, this would be especially damaging for Benazir.
The Spanish authorities are investigating financial transactions thought to be linked to Petroline FZC. In addition, President Musharraf’s
amnesty dropping corruption charges against public officials only covers the period 1986-1999.
The Petroline FZC transactions came after that, which means that in theory a charge is possible.
Benazir Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7064052.stm
Published: 2007/10/29 00:05
BBC MMVII
Swiss judge wraps up Bhutto money-laundering probe
Stephanie Nebehay
Oct 18, 2007
GENEVA (Reuters) – A Swiss investigative judge said on October 17 that he had completed a long-running probe into alleged money laundering by Benazir Bhutto and her husband.
Judge Vincent Fournier, who spoke as Bhutto returned to her homeland after eight years in self-exile, said he would hand over his confidential findings next week to Geneva chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli for action.
Zappelli has three options — to bring the case to trial, suspend it, or dismiss it.
Fournier conceded that money-laundering allegations would be harder to prove under Swiss law after President Pervez Musharraf granted an amnesty to protect Bhutto from corruption charges at home.
“It is not impossible, but much more difficult,” he said. “The fact that Pakistan has withdrawn its own prosecution does not help the Swiss demonstration of money-laundering.”
At least $13 million remains frozen in bank accounts in the Swiss city in connection with the criminal case, which relates to alleged kickbacks from Swiss cargo inspection companies in the 1990s, officials said. “I regard my investigation as completed and the case is
ready for the prosecutor,” Fournier told Reuters.
To obtain a conviction under Swiss federal law, a prosecutor must prove that graft or other crimes have been committed abroad and the proceeds were laundered in Switzerland. A conviction for aggravated money-laundering can mean up to five years in prison.
Bhutto and Zardari were convicted in Geneva in 2003 of having laundered funds worth some $13 million through offshore companies and ordered to return the frozen funds to the Pakistani government, which currently remains a civil party in the case.
But this verdict was thrown out automatically upon appeal, sparking a new probe. Bhutto denied the money-laundering charges in testimony two years ago before Fournier.
Alec Reymond, Bhutto’s lawyer in Geneva, said he expected Zappelli to drop the case following Musharraf’s amnesty, which also applies to Zardari.
“The abandonment of the prosecution in Pakistan should lead to the affair being closed in Geneva,” Reymond told Reuters.
Bhutto’s return could eventually lead to power sharing with Musharraf, the army chief who took power in a 1999 coup. Pakistan’s Supreme
Court has still to rule on the legality of the amnesty and of Musharraf’s recent re-election.
Source: http://alaiwah.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/proof-of-benazir-zardaris-corruption/
Posted on May 26, 2010 by alaiwah
What are those notorious Swiss cases which the SC has asked the government to reopen in its judgment against NRO?
The decision of the Swiss judge who found Benazir Bhutto and Zardari guilty of corruption and receiving kickbacks in SGS Cotecna case led to six months suspended sentence. Both appealed against it and when this appeal was about to be finalised, Musharraf bailed the couple out through NRO and withdrew these Swiss cases, so the couple was saved from punishment, but this does not mean that they did not commit any corruption.
Our worthy news anchors should have a look at this material and question PPP stalwarts who shamelessly lie during talk shows to defend their masters. The Law Minister Babar Awan should also consider before telling the Supreme Court that there were no cases in the Swiss Court.
Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari were held guilty of money laundering by the Swiss Court.
Investigation Judge Daniel Devaud in Geneva sentenced them to a six-month suspended jail term, fined them $50,000 each and ordered they pay more than $2m to the Pakistani Government.
He said they had illegally deposited millions of dollars in accounts in Switzerland, and ordered the money be returned to Pakistan.
The case relates to a 1998 indictment in which Benazir Bhutto was accused of having access to money obtained through kickbacks and commissions from two Swiss companies with contracts with the then Pakistani Government.
An investigation found several numbered accounts in Switzerland in which more than $11m had been deposited.
Benazir Bhutto strongly denied having had access to the accounts.
The couple’s lawyer, Farooq Naek, at the time described the order as “illogical, unreasonable, inconsistent with law, based on malafide
[bad faith] and … politically motivated.” He complained that the announcement had been made without notices having been served on either Benazir or Zardari.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3125277.stm
Published: 2003/08/05 11:37:01 GMT
BBC MMX
Diamond necklace exposed Bhutto money-laundering trail
Details emerged of how a 117,000 diamond necklace led to the Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari being convicted of money laundering by a Swiss court.
The pair were given suspended jail sentences of six months each and ordered to repay about 8m to the Pakistani government.
The Swiss investigating magistrate found that during her second term as PM she enriched herself or her husband with kickbacks from a government contract with two Swiss companies.
“There is no doubt that the behaviour of Benazir Bhutto and her husband is criminally reprehensible in Pakistan,” the magistrate, Daniel Devaud wrote in his sentencing order after the five-year investigation.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, says that in 1995 the two companies, SGS and Cotecna, took up a contract for customs inspection of goods being imported into Pakistan.
The judge cited letters showing that 6% of the amount paid by the Pakistani government under the inspection contract would be paid as commission to companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
One of these, Bomer Finances Inc, received $8.2m and another, Nassam Overseas Inc, received $3.8m, the judge found.
The beneficial owner of Bomer Finance is Asif Ali Zardari, but in reality she shares the assets with him and has the power of disposition, the judge said.
The beneficial owner of Nassam Overseas is Nasir Hussain, who at the time was Ms Bhutto’s brother-in-law, he added.
Evidence of Ms Bhutto’s role in Bomer Finance emerged from a visit to London during which she bought a diamond necklace at a Knightsbridge jeweller’s.
The 117,000 bill was paid partly in cash and partly with money from Bomer Finance’s account.
It was the only withdrawal made from the company’s account before its assets were frozen at the request of the Pakistani authorities.
The necklace was later found in a Swiss bank vault, and was also seized.
Under the judge’s ruling it must now be handed over to the Pakistani state.
Jeremy Carver, a lawyer who represented the Pakistani government five years ago in relation to Benazir, said that there were “at least half a dozen international cases at various stages in various pipelines, either in Pakistan, Switzerland or the United States”.
Benazir’s Rockwood estate at Brooke in Surrey, valued at 3.5m, is currently being sold by the Pakistani government.
She is believed to own four other properties in London.
This article was published on guardian.co.uk on Friday 8 August 2003.
Foreign cases that could haunt Bhutto
| By Richard Lawson BBC News, London |
In 2003, the Geneva magistrate Daniel Devaud convicted Ms Bhutto of money-laundering.
In his judgment, he found she and her close associates received around $15m in kickbacks from Pakistani government contracts with SGS and Cotecna, two Swiss companies.
Mr Devaud sentenced Benazir and Asif Zardari to 180 days in prison, ordering them to return $11.9m to the government of Pakistan.
“I certainly don’t have any doubts about the judgments I handed down [which] came after an investigation lasting several years, involving thousands of documents,” he has told the BBC.
Benazir contested the decision, which was made in her absence, and the case is being reheard, with the former PM now facing the more serious charge of aggravated money-laundering.
Asked about the case, her officials told the BBC: “These allegations are part and parcel of a campaign of a character assassination. Ms Bhutto has not done anything illegal. She and Asif Zardari have defended themselves in every court in every country.”
Many in Pakistan assume the Swiss case will now collapse because of the deal struck between Ms Bhutto and President Musharraf.
Yet under Swiss law, even if the government of Pakistan stops co-operating, that would not automatically end legal proceedings in Switzerland.
Vincent Fournier, the Swiss judge in charge of the current case, told the BBC he planned to hand the case over to Geneva’s attorney-general.
A second international case involving Ms Bhutto is under way in England.
In this case, the government of Pakistan alleged that Benazir and her husband bought Rockwood, a $3.4m country estate in Surrey, using money from kickbacks.
Benazir and Zardari denied owning the estate for eight years. But in 2004, Mr Zardari suddenly admitted that it was his.
Then, in 2006, an English judge, Lord Justice Collins, came to an interesting, though by no means final, conclusion about the estate.
Whilst stressing he was not making any “findings of fact”, Justice Collins said there was a “reasonable prospect” of the government of Pakistan establishing, in possible future court proceedings, that Benazir and/or her husband bought and refurbished Rockwood with “the fruits of corruption”.
Asked by the BBC about Rockwood, Benazir’s officials denied any allegations of corruption, but gave no detailed response, although her husband’s lawyers told Justice Collins that Pakistan’s case was speculative.
The London case is a civil one. That means it could collapse should President Musharraf’s government decide not to pursue it.
Benazir also faces allegations concerning the United Nations oil-for-food scandal. In 2005, the Independent Inquiry Commission led by former US Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker found that more than 2,000 companies breached UN sanctions by making illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq before 2003.
Among them was a company called Petroline FZC, based in the United Arab Emirates. Mr Volcker’s inquiry found it traded $144m of Iraqi oil, and made $2m of illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Documents from Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau appear to show that Benazir was Petroline FZC’s chairwoman.
If these documents are genuine, and the oil-for-food allegations are proven, this would be especially damaging for Benazir.
The Spanish authorities are investigating financial transactions thought to be linked to Petroline FZC. In addition, President Musharraf’s
amnesty dropping corruption charges against public officials only covers the period 1986-1999.
The Petroline FZC transactions came after that, which means that in theory a charge is possible.
Benazir Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7064052.stm
Published: 2007/10/29 00:05
BBC MMVII
Swiss judge wraps up Bhutto money-laundering probe
Stephanie Nebehay
Oct 18, 2007
GENEVA (Reuters) – A Swiss investigative judge said on October 17 that he had completed a long-running probe into alleged money laundering by Benazir Bhutto and her husband.
Judge Vincent Fournier, who spoke as Bhutto returned to her homeland after eight years in self-exile, said he would hand over his confidential findings next week to Geneva chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli for action.
Zappelli has three options — to bring the case to trial, suspend it, or dismiss it.
Fournier conceded that money-laundering allegations would be harder to prove under Swiss law after President Pervez Musharraf granted an amnesty to protect Bhutto from corruption charges at home.
“It is not impossible, but much more difficult,” he said. “The fact that Pakistan has withdrawn its own prosecution does not help the Swiss demonstration of money-laundering.”
At least $13 million remains frozen in bank accounts in the Swiss city in connection with the criminal case, which relates to alleged kickbacks from Swiss cargo inspection companies in the 1990s, officials said. “I regard my investigation as completed and the case is
ready for the prosecutor,” Fournier told Reuters.
To obtain a conviction under Swiss federal law, a prosecutor must prove that graft or other crimes have been committed abroad and the proceeds were laundered in Switzerland. A conviction for aggravated money-laundering can mean up to five years in prison.
Bhutto and Zardari were convicted in Geneva in 2003 of having laundered funds worth some $13 million through offshore companies and ordered to return the frozen funds to the Pakistani government, which currently remains a civil party in the case.
But this verdict was thrown out automatically upon appeal, sparking a new probe. Bhutto denied the money-laundering charges in testimony two years ago before Fournier.
Alec Reymond, Bhutto’s lawyer in Geneva, said he expected Zappelli to drop the case following Musharraf’s amnesty, which also applies to Zardari.
“The abandonment of the prosecution in Pakistan should lead to the affair being closed in Geneva,” Reymond told Reuters.
Bhutto’s return could eventually lead to power sharing with Musharraf, the army chief who took power in a 1999 coup. Pakistan’s Supreme
Court has still to rule on the legality of the amnesty and of Musharraf’s recent re-election.
Source: http://alaiwah.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/proof-of-benazir-zardaris-corruption/
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