The issue of Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised, the founder of the Abraaj Group, has come to prominence again as it was reported that he had given a written affidavit mentioning that he had raised millions of dollars worth of funding for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Naqvi, who is fighting extradition to the US case in the UK, is currently incarcerated in London on charges of massive financial fraud. PTI is currently facing charge of financial bungling in the funding it received from foreign channels. This case is under hearing for the last seven years in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The said affidavit is submitted as evidence to prove that the funding was genuine. In the affidavit Arif Naqvi confirmed that he had raised over $2 million for PTI’s political campaigns. Interestingly, the affidavit has confirmed the allegations of former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director-general Bashir Memon, who in a television interview last year had alleged that the prime minister summoned him and scolded him for initiating an inquiry against Naqvi’s company. According to Memon, the PM scolded him by stating that he should not investigate the case as Arif Naqvi is his friend. The affidavit was handed over to the PTI by Naqvi on the ruling party’s request to submit in the ECP foreign funding case. It is unclear if he signed it before or after his arrest in the UK. Naqvi says in the affidavit that he had collected the funds in the account titled Wooton Cricket Limited (WCL) and transferred to the PTI account in Pakistan for the period 2012 to 2013. In this context it was reported that the WCL Company was 100% owned by Arif Naqvi in his personal capacity and that it was not a multinational and neither the contributor of the funds and only acted as a convenient and traceable aggregator of funds as a conduct for the transfer of funds to Pakistan.
Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised was arrested in April 2019 by Scotland Yard on behalf of the US government after his multi-billion dollars Abraaj Group collapsed and he could face nearly 300 years in jail if extradited. No fund was flashier than Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised though there were many bigger than it. This Dubai-based firm promoted a brand of have-your-cake-and-eat-it capitalism all of its very own and at its head sat Naqvi, a self-made financial guru with the easy charm of a talk show host and the messianic certainty of a cult leader. His promise to investors and governments around the world was simple: that they could make large sums of money and do lots and lots of good at the exact same time. At its height Abraaj managed some $14 billion dollars, pledged to buy up and improve struggling companies in emerging or developing markets and in doing so, apparently, set in motion a series of cosmic dominos which would one day end the existence of global poverty altogether. He waxed eloquent about eradicating hunger, disease, illiteracy, inequality and also vowed to tackle climate change. Most of the rhetoric of Arif Naqvi was difficult to rationalise and to reconcile with facts and it ultimately proved that the company was just building castles in the air and successfully selling them. However, by the summer of 2019, Abraaj had become the latest in a series of modern morality plays populated by a memorable cast of clear-eyed, hype-fueled founders notorious for their glib tongue and high profile living. The most essential attribute Naqvi shared with Ponzi-schemers was his uncanny ability for storytelling, showmanship and self-mythology which blinded the smartest people in the room to his company’s inherent flaws and its prominent proof was the certificate granted to it by the reputable KPMG, auditors to the firm, who stated that they saw nothing fishy on Abraaj’s books with Freshfields, the London law firm, also joining the fray. It was quite a task that Naqvi displayed a familiarly impressive talent for self-deception and even when his company began haemorrhaging cash and was systematically besieged by powerful investors he kept his cool, trotted around the world, lecturing governments and luminaries, befriending billionaires and the global press. While the going was good it was really very good and Naqvi adequately cashed in on the financial crisis of 2008 and his idea of impact investing was widely popular. But the end was nigh as Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised got caught in his spendthrift ways and started switching money from one account to the other ultimately exhausting the cash flow and finally surrendering to bankruptcy. The end brought in a spiral of litigation that resulted in Arif Naqvi getting arrested in London and now it has been two years since his incarceration in London awaiting extradition to America where he fears massive horrors await him. TW
Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised
millions for PTI
Byadmin
Dated
April 30, 2022
Umair Ali describes a dubious nexus
Comment
The issue of Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised, the founder of the Abraaj Group, has come to prominence again as it was reported that he had given a written affidavit mentioning that he had raised millions of dollars worth of funding for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Naqvi, who is fighting extradition to the US case in the UK, is currently incarcerated in London on charges of massive financial fraud. PTI is currently facing charge of financial bungling in the funding it received from foreign channels. This case is under hearing for the last seven years in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The said affidavit is submitted as evidence to prove that the funding was genuine. In the affidavit Arif Naqvi confirmed that he had raised over $2 million for PTI’s political campaigns.
Interestingly, the affidavit has confirmed the allegations of former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director-general Bashir Memon, who in a television interview last year had alleged that the prime minister summoned him and scolded him for initiating an inquiry against Naqvi’s company. According to Memon, the PM scolded him by stating that he should not investigate the case as Arif Naqvi is his friend. The affidavit was handed over to the PTI by Naqvi on the ruling party’s request to submit in the ECP foreign funding case. It is unclear if he signed it before or after his arrest in the UK. Naqvi says in the affidavit that he had collected the funds in the account titled Wooton Cricket Limited (WCL) and transferred to the PTI account in Pakistan for the period 2012 to 2013. In this context it was reported that the WCL Company was 100% owned by Arif Naqvi in his personal capacity and that it was not a multinational and neither the contributor of the funds and only acted as a convenient and traceable aggregator of funds as a conduct for the transfer of funds to Pakistan.
Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised was arrested in April 2019 by Scotland Yard on behalf of the US government after his multi-billion dollars Abraaj Group collapsed and he could face nearly 300 years in jail if extradited. No fund was flashier than Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised though there were many bigger than it. This Dubai-based firm promoted a brand of have-your-cake-and-eat-it capitalism all of its very own and at its head sat Naqvi, a self-made financial guru with the easy charm of a talk show host and the messianic certainty of a cult leader. His promise to investors and governments around the world was simple: that they could make large sums of money and do lots and lots of good at the exact same time.
At its height Abraaj managed some $14 billion dollars, pledged to buy up and improve struggling companies in emerging or developing markets and in doing so, apparently, set in motion a series of cosmic dominos which would one day end the existence of global poverty altogether. He waxed eloquent about eradicating hunger, disease, illiteracy, inequality and also vowed to tackle climate change. Most of the rhetoric of Arif Naqvi was difficult to rationalise and to reconcile with facts and it ultimately proved that the company was just building castles in the air and successfully selling them. However, by the summer of 2019, Abraaj had become the latest in a series of modern morality plays populated by a memorable cast of clear-eyed, hype-fueled founders notorious for their glib tongue and high profile living.
The most essential attribute Naqvi shared with Ponzi-schemers was his uncanny ability for storytelling, showmanship and self-mythology which blinded the smartest people in the room to his company’s inherent flaws and its prominent proof was the certificate granted to it by the reputable KPMG, auditors to the firm, who stated that they saw nothing fishy on Abraaj’s books with Freshfields, the London law firm, also joining the fray. It was quite a task that Naqvi displayed a familiarly impressive talent for self-deception and even when his company began haemorrhaging cash and was systematically besieged by powerful investors he kept his cool, trotted around the world, lecturing governments and luminaries, befriending billionaires and the global press.
While the going was good it was really very good and Naqvi adequately cashed in on the financial crisis of 2008 and his idea of impact investing was widely popular. But the end was nigh as Arif Naqvi of Abraaj raised got caught in his spendthrift ways and started switching money from one account to the other ultimately exhausting the cash flow and finally surrendering to bankruptcy. The end brought in a spiral of litigation that resulted in Arif Naqvi getting arrested in London and now it has been two years since his incarceration in London awaiting extradition to America where he fears massive horrors await him. TW
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Umair Ali is a trainee lawyer
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