KARACHI: R&D MCC Appraisement East has arrested Arif Humayun, former CEO of M/s AMI Pakistan and mastermind of the scam wherein M/s AMI Pakistan in connivance of importers and clearing agents fraudulently mis-declared the port of loading to avail certain benefits.
His arrest comes as a surprise as Arif Humayun also happened to be the informer of MCC Appraisement West after he left the job as CEO of M/s AMI Pakistan. However MCC Appraisement East Majid Yousafani and Additional Collector Irfan Wahid and Deputy Collector Zaheer Abbas pursued his arrest so that the actual culprits could be apprehended.
Sources said Arif Humayun was the master mind of the scam and was running the duty business in nexus/patronage of one or more directors of the company.
The investigations into the scam were conducted by a team formed by Collector Dr. Uwais Agha Jawwad and after rigorous effort the team Deputy Collector Ghulam Nabi Kamboh and Appraising Officers Shahid Ibrahim Dasti, Irshad Ahmed, Zulfiqar Zaman and Javed Khalid, unfolded various aspects of the case.
It may be recalled that Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation lodged an FIR with Nasir Pasha of M/s AMI Pakistan as witness against Mohammad Abdul Rafee of M/s Caltrols Pakistan and Arif Humayun and others for evading duty and taxes through mis-declaration of origin, tampering in the import documents and undue claim of Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
As the noose was tightened around Arif Humayun, he came to MCC Appraisement West as informer to escape his wrongdoings.
AMI Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd has been booked for committing a fraud by issuing of switch Bills of Lading in connivance with several importers, clearing agents and got cleared different goods by mis-declaring the vital information with regard to the shipper’s name, port of loading, country of origin to claim inadmissible FTA benefit and clearing banned products.
Sources told Customnews.pk that M/s AMI Pakistan, which is a company of Marine Group, in connivance with importers and clearing agents switched the Bill of Lading and mis-declared the port of loading as China instead of actual countries happened to be South Africa, UAE and Europe to claim inadmissible benefit of FTA with China.
Sources said a large quantity of steel coils, fabric and lubricants were imported into the country in this manner inflicting huge loss to the national economy.
However, the management of M/s AMI put all blame to an Import Manager Noman and Assistant Manager Saira and claimed that Noman and Saira were running the scam on their own and without the knowledge of management. However, Noman denies all allegations. It is interesting to note that Noman is represented by a lawyer and resources employed by M/s AMI Pakistan.
Sources said there had been a dispute between the company management and Arif Humayun, which led to the detection of this scam.
First FIR was lodged by Directorate of I&I and then there was a settlement between Arif Humayun and company management and then they put blame on Noman and Saira. MCC Appraisement West then arrested Noman.
MCC Appraisement East however is pursuing the case and making efforts to reach the actual culprits.
There is one interesting thing that a proper audit is conducted by M/s AMI Pakistan every year. The scam is going on for several years and yet the auditors did not noticed the anomaly in freight payments.