KARACHI: MCC Appraisement West has approached Sindh High Court seeking permission to proceed against the directors of M/s AMI Pakistan, as the Court in an earlier ruling had linked criminal/legal proceedings against the directors of company with the prior permission of the court.
Sindh High Court has fixed the hearing this regard on March 30, 2016.
M/s AMI Pakistan and its directors are accused of fraudulent manifestation of import consignments to circumvent several provisions and availing inadmissible benefits.
In its application, MCC Appraisement West has out rightly rejected the claims of company directors that their employees misused their authority and indulged in the crime without their knowledge.
Appraisement West submitted that the investigations, so far carried out confirm that this phenomenon of fraudulent manifestation of consignments was going for years. It is beyond understandings that this unusual/illegal favour mens-rea to attract business from market was continuing for a long period without the knowledge of top management/directors, who must have conducted mandatory Board of Directors meetings intermittently.
Most importantly, M/s AMI is not a welfare organization, rather a commercial organization. Therefore, the Directors of the company cannot absolve themselves from the wrong doings of the employees, which they have done to attract business on behest of the directors.
Moreover accused employees of M/s AMI are still being paid regular salaries and the legal counsels appointed on behalf of company are also representing the accused employees as well.
Further investigations in the matter also revealed that despite the fact that the said scam was un-earthed in November-December, 2015 and till March 02, 2016, no action was taken by the Company’s Directors against the persons who glued their hands with the clearing agents and the importers by issuing forged/manipulated Bills of Lading and false declaration/feeding in the manifest (IGM), in respect of particulars of the imported goods.
The only action so far taken by the petitioners is the issuance of show cause notice to some of their employees Noman and Saira on March 02, 2016 i.e. a day after obtaining the Court’s order barring Customs from proceedings against the directors without the permission of the court.
Customs submits before the court that the magnitude of the scam clearly proves that it is not a case where the beneficiary directors have no knowledge about the affairs of their business practices of the company to upload the manifest (IGM) with false particulars and mis-declaration about the imported goods on behest of their clients for a long and continuous period.
Investigations so far carried out also transpire that number of banned goods consignments (i.e. Indian Origin Fabric) have been cleared in violation of the Import Policy Order while duty taxes were also evaded depriving exchequer of its legitimate revenue.