The Axact organization in Pakistan, exposed in a page one New York Times story by Declan Walsh, has proven to be, by far, the largest fake degree operation ever, with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales worldwide. A Google search for "Axact" will find hundreds of articles. Here is a very long summary report issued by authorities there. It includes detailed information on all the perpetrators, more than 300 fake universities and accrediting agencies, bank accounts, and so forth. The formatting is awkward and we hope to improve that. In the meantime, we will be glad to email you a formatted Word document. Use the 'Contact us" page to the left.
IN THE HONOURABLE COURT OF ADDL: DISTRICT & SESSIONS JUDGE (SOUTH)-V, KARACHI
In the First Information Report No.07/2015 dated 27.05.2015 u/s 420/468/471/472/473/474/477-A/109/34 PPC r/w section 36/37 ETO, 2002 and Section 3/4 AML Act, 2010
1 2 3 4. 5. 6.
Name Address & Occupation Of Complainant Or Informant Names and addresses of accused not sent up for trial whether arrested Or not & absconders (absconders in red ink) Accused Persons Sent Up For Trial Property (including weapons) found, with particulars Of where, when & by whom found and whether forwarded to magistrate/special judge whose name to be given. Name And Addresses Of Witnesses Charge or information. Name & circumstances connected with it, in concise detail & under what section of the law charged.
In Custody On Bail
State through Saeed Ahmed Memon, FIA Corporate Crime Circle, Karachi. Farhan Kamal (CNIC No. 42000-0483870-3, R/O: 23, 1st Street, Off Khayaban-e-Sehar, Post Office Lane, DHA-VI, Karachi Uzma Shaheen w/o Syed Muhammad Zubair for Plot No. 338-D, 1st Street, Phase-VIII, DHA, Karachi. Harris Siddiqui S/o Irshad Hussain Siddiqui, H.No. 190, Street No. 41. Main Kh-e-Ittehad Phase 6, DHA, Karachi. Zubair.M.Syed, 1512 Midwest Club Parkway, Oak brook, Illinois 60523.
List 14 fourteen accused Attached
Ayesha Shaoib w/o Shaoib Ahmed Shaikh, R/o House No. 26/II, 18th Street, Khayaban-e-Tanzeem, DHA, Karachi. (On Pre-arrest Interim Bail). NIL List attached List Attached U/S 182, 201, 383, 409, 418, 419, 420, 466, 467, 468, 471, 472, 473, 474, 476, 477-A, 109, 34 PPC r/w section 36 & 37 of Electronic Ordinance, 2002
An enquiry No. 14/2015 was registered at FIA, Corporate Crime Circle, Karachi regarding axact- fake online degree scam, on the orders of the competent authority. During the course of enquiry, it has been established that accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh initially established a company in the name & style of M/s axact FZ LLC, UAE. Thereafter, accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh incorporated a company with the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in the name & style of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, Pakistan with following shareholding:
1. Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Director/ CEO 01 share 2. Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh, Director 01 share 3. M/s axact FZ LLC, UAE 599,998 shares
Contd…P/2.
Accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, in the capacity of Director/ CEO of M/s axact and his management team comprising of Zeeshan Anwar, Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Ahmed, Farhan Kamal, Muhammad Sabir, and others were part of a conspiracy upon which they systematically and continuously acted in an organized manner on multiple occasions for creation of false, fake, fabricated, misleading, forged and spoofed domain names; created false, fabricated, fake, misleading, forged and spoofed digital content (such as brand names, literature, pictures and other material) for both websites and emails communications, created false, fabricated, fake, misleading, forged, fraudulent and spoofed websites; created false, fabricated, misleading, forged, fraudulent and spoofed digital content (such as brand names, literature, pictures and other material) for spear phishing emails sent to individuals targeted; created false, fabricated, fake, fraudulent, misleading, forged and spoofed physical/hardcopy content (such as brand names, literature, pictures, certificates, diplomas, degrees, accreditations and other material) for the purposes of defrauding, misleading and cheating employers, Governments, Public Servants, Diplomatic and Consular Services (Embassies and Consulates attestation, notarization, legalization, apostile and visa services). These websites included hundreds of websites of false, fabricated, fake, fraudulent, misleading and fictitious Universities/ Schools/ Colleges / other educational institutions / Accreditation bodies and other organizations / Job Sites purportedly based at various countries including USA and Middle Eastern Countries. That these accused through this criminal conduct created a microcosm of false, fabricated and fraudulent universities, accreditation organizations, review and critique sites as well as job sites and payment portals masquerading as IT products/services sites with a further objective to utilize the amalgam of these websites and spear phishing emails along with fraudulent, dishonest and impersonating phone calls in conjunction with one another in a conspiracy to target thousands upon thousands of victims in order to defraud, embezzle, cheat and extort funds out of these individuals. At the same time the accused caused the proceeds of these crimes to be processed fraudulently and falsely on websites and merchant payment accounts masquerading as websites and merchant payment accounts for IT products/services, thereby laundering these payments. As part of these fraudulent forgery services the accused systematically prepared, printed (themselves and ordered others to print for them)millions of certificates, diplomas, degrees, accreditations and other documentation knowing that these were false, fabricated, misleading, forged both in terms of the documents printed and produced as well as the statements and representations regarding the qualification, skills and completion of courses and examinations of individuals named in these documents. These documents were designed and produced by the accused and upon their instructions and under the supervision specifically for the purpose of furnishing false and misleading information, defrauding and cheating employers and public servants; both as a result of employers employing and providing salaries to individuals as well as inducing public servants to apply Government seals, approvals, attestation, notarization and legalization upon such false, fabricated, forged and misleading documents; and in numerous cases even applying Government seals, approvals, attestation, notarization and legalization to such false, fabricated, forged and misleading documents themselves. In order to manage this entire criminal organized enterprise the accused acquired and used a comprehensive Customer Relations Management (CRM) system which included details and cogent evidence of the entire process and trail of each stage of each of these several offences as an amalgam. This CRM includes evidence from the inception of the idea and concept for the creation of false, fabricated, misleading, forged and spoofed domain names and websites, thereafter the creation and development of its digital and hardcopy content that included false, fabricated, misleading, forged literature, certificates, diplomas, degrees, accreditations and other documents, followed by the fraudulent marketing and advertising of the fraudulent, forged and impersonated services, further followed by the record of impersonated and fraudulent spear phishing emails, and phone calls with willfully forged, fabricated, false and counterfeit CLI including electronic record and files of the phone/audio calls through which the offences were committed by and upon instructions of the accused.
As mentioned above, besides preparing, offering, selling & issuing fake/ forged/ bogus Degrees/ Diplomas, accused Directors of M/s axact (Pvt) Limited and their management have also established fictitious & non-existent accreditation bodies and used to fraudulently prepare Accreditation Certificates of fictitious Universities/ Schools/ Colleges/ Accreditation and other organizations in order to portray that Universities/ Schools/ Colleges/ Accreditation and other organizations and Certificates as genuine.
Accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, CEO and his management team used the above modus operandi for defrauding students,their employers and public servants by offering different packages of false, fabricated, fake, fraudulent, misleading and fictitious Universities/ Colleges/ Schools/ Accreditation and other organizations and received huge fees through online Credit/ Debit Cards and deposited the same in the Bank Accounts abroad including that of M/s axact FZ LLC Dubai, UAE. Thereafter, the funds were further laundered and brought into Pakistan in bank accounts of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd maintained/ operated at Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited, Habib Bank Limited, Askari Bank Limited Khayaban-e-Ittehad Branch, Karachi, UBL Khayaban-e-Ittehad Branch, Karachi & ABL Khayaban-e-Itehad Branch, Karachi under the guise of software exports. Accused Director and Management of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd used to submit false/ fake/ forged/ bogus monthly software export statements to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in order to disguise illegal origin of their funds.
During the course of enquiry, a number of incriminating material/articles including fictitious/fake certificates, degrees, blank and filled accreditation letters, blank certificates/ degrees, validation letters, different stamps, embossing machines related to false, fabricated, fake, fraudulent, misleading and fictitious Universities/ Colleges/ Schools/ Accreditation and other organizations used for the commission of above offences, have been recovered from the premises of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd which have been seized under proper seizure memos.
Besides, the Forensic Team of FIA NR3C has begun the arduous and time consuming task of examining the hundreds of different systems installed in the premises of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, main office, Karachi and issued its initial/preliminary technical findings and data flow diagram of Customer Relation Management (CRM) of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd. The data flow diagram of CRM (Customers Relationship Management) System of axact illustrates the facts outlined herein through technical findings thereon explain about CRM web applications used by M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd for committing the offences specified herein.
On 27.05.2015 at 01.00 hrs on the pointation of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Chief Executive of M/s axact Private Limited, FIA team under the supervision of Mr. Javed Iqbal Malik Learned Judicial Magistrate-V, Karachi (South) broke open the lock of premises of the so-called “Administrative Process Management (APM)” Department of M/s axact (Pvt) Limited located at First Floor of building bearing Plot No. 125-C, Jami Commercial, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA, Karachi known as PIA Building. The premises consisted of one hall, 04 rooms and 03 stores. During search of premises hundreds of thousands of degrees/certificates of hundreds of false, fabricated, fake, fraudulent, misleading and fictitious Universities/ Colleges/ Schools/ Accreditation and other organizations, envelops and other incriminating materials/articles were found in cabinets and racks. Besides, the printing materials were also found during search. Detail of some of the degrees/ Certificates of various foreign schools/universities along with accreditation organizations unearthed thus far and taken in possession as specimen are mentioned below: S# Name of School / Universities S# Name of School / Universities
1. E.D Barton University 2. Brookdell University
3. Richford University 4. Relligngton University
5. Tuscon University 6. WalesBridge University
7. Orlando University 8. Creek University
9. California Town University 10 Victor Towns University
11. Baytown University 12. Suffield University
13. Bakerville University 14. Arab Women University
15 Port Newfield University 16. Harvey University
17. Galewood University 18 Pitsford University
19. Nelson Bay University 20. James Adam University
21. Baychester University 22. Madison Hills University
23. Keyton University 24. Groveshire University
25. American Mideast University 26. Hurst University
27 Camp Lake University 28 Brooks Fargo University
29. Payne Springs University (PSU) 30. AdamsVille University, Excellence in E-Learning
31. Johnstown University 32. Wood Bridge University
33. Corllins University 34. Ashley University
35. Asherton University 36. Hamingford University
37. Glendale University. 38. Raeford University
39. Belford University 40. Greenlake University.
41. Belford High School 42. Granttown University
43. Colubiana University 44. Kennedy University
Details of some of the fictitious accreditation bodies discovered thus far and that have come on record so far during search, are mentioned below:
S# Name of Accreditation Body S# Name of Accreditation Body
1. Gulf Accreditation Council 2. American Accreditation Council of Business Education
3. Middle East Accreditation Council 4. North American Distance Learning Council (NADLC)
5. Occupational Safety & Fire Sciences Commission 6. Central American Distance Learning Association (CADLA)
7. International Board for Accredited IT Education 8. Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation (UCOEA)
9. International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities
Since counting a huge number of blank degrees/certificates and other documents and other incriminating material was not possible during late night, the learned Judicial Magistrate sealed the premises till following day for the purpose of detail counting in presence of him.
The above acts of accused persons and recovery of embossing machines and huge quantity of degrees, certificates, accreditation certificates and other incriminating materials/articles recovered from the premises of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd constituted the commission of offences punishable under section 420/468/471/472/473/474/477-A/109/34 PPC r/w Section 36 & 37 of Electronic Transaction Ordinance (ETO), 2002 and Section 3 & 4 of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, 2010. Hence, the case was registered against accused (i) Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh s/o Bashir Ahmed Shaikh (CNIC#42301-2480273-9) Director & CEO of M/s axact (Pvt) Limited R/o House No. 26/II, 18th Street, Khayaban-e-Tanzeem, DHA, Karachi and his management team comprising of accused persons namely: (ii) Viqas Atique s/o Atiqur Rehman (CNIC No. 42301-6591580-3) R/O House No. 114, Khayaban-e-Tariq, D.H.A, Karachi (iii) Zeeshan Anwar s/o Anwar Ahmed(CNIC No.42201-6468066-5) R/o Flat No.207, 2nd floor Marine Heights 3, Block-2, Clifton Karachi. (iv) Zeeshan Ahmed s/o Naeemuddin (CNIC No.42201-447176670-5) R/O H. No. 207, 35th Street, Phase- VI D.H.A, Karachi(v) Muhammad Sabir S/o Muhammad Akram & (vi) M/s axact FZ LLC, UAE and others.
During the course of investigation, the learned Judicial Magistrate (South), Karachi, prepared day to day recovery memos from 27.05.2015 to 11.06.2015 of degrees/ certificates of foreign fictitious Schools/ Universities/ Colleges/Accreditation and other organizations, envelopes and other incriminating materials/ articles were found in cabinets and racks of Administrative Process Management (APM) Department of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd located at First Floor, Plot No. C-125, Street No. 14, Jami Commercial, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA, Karachi. Besides, the printing materials were also seized from the said premises. Details of the incriminating material recovered from the aforementioned premises are as under:
S# Name of Institution Degrees with Golden Seal Gradation Criteria at Back Certificate with Golden Seal Degree with Golden Seal at Centre Certificate without Golden Seal Letter Heads Long Stickers Folders Square Stickers Envelopes Legalization Broachers
Prospectus
Adamsville University 3400 1600 2700 2960 4480 1200 1250
1250 1400
Adison High School 1571 589 589 3310 3189 962 1965
1760
358
Al Arab University 2400
1270 1250 1306 1193 375 812
ACPA
250
Al Khaleej University 1110 2220
1000 3050 1450 1499 450 1300 2200
Al Khalifa American University 4110
500
4425 5860 1070 1352
1200 1444
Al Nasr University 1258 1000 1057 170 3146 1346 1601 1133 844 1600
Aldeton University 1550 1680
1000 500 2250 1475 750 1500 1600
Alford High School 973 480
500 1882 200 402
500
Allerwood University
250
Almeda University 3000 1100
3000 7445 1450 1450
1526
American Accreditation Council of Business Education (AACBE)
1400 1500
1538
1156
American Board of Certified Engineers
05
American Board of Engineering Professional
1500 1350
1390
American Engineering Society
2196
1069
1172
American Gulf University 3550
1300 3600 5730 1240 1117
1000 1530
American Higher Learning Commission
70 20
19
American Mideast University 1300 500 1000 4123 4010 1200 1325
White Lake University 1996 1350 450 2280 3281 1462 3394
1352 1364
Wilburton University 1880 750
930 1200 1130 800 1025 1200
Wiley University 3030 2000
4150 6500 1350 1491
1264 1790
Wilford University 2535
568 3408 5196 756 1175
777 1724
Willington University 900 1000
2100 950 1120 700 500 918
Windham University 630 860 2150 4540 4650 850 1000
1289 1000
Winford High School 500
378
688 88 340
70
Winford University
1670 84
Woodbridge University 1000 900
950 200
200 250 700
Woodfield High School 68
344 576 555
898 750 57
12 cards
Woodfield University 653 1249
1509 2814 802 986
1523
Woodrow University 3369 2000 9 3980 5780 1285 1476
1608 1800
World Accreditation Commission for Engineering Education 1200 1697
1350
World Engineering Commission 1570 694 1500
1520
Works No.01 E-Learning System
182
During the course of investigation, while in FIA Custody Remand, accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, CEO/ Director, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd disclosed that after publication of story pertaining to the “Degree Mills” scam of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd in New York Times, he hid in the homes of his employees namely (1) Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed (2) Imran Ahmed Khan (3) Atif Hussain (4) Adnan Saboor after removing the incriminating material i.e Hard Drives of the computers/ servers of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd and Tape Drives available in axact House, Karachi. On the pointation of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, a raid was conducted at the different places where the incriminating material was hidden. During raids all the incriminating material was recovered from the possession of accused (1) Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed (2) Imran Ahmed Khan (3) Atif Hussain (4) Adnan Saboor. Accordingly, accused (1) Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed (2) Imran Ahmed Khan (3) Atif Hussain (4) Adnan Saboor were arrested. The details of digital evidences extracted through forensics analysis from the recovered digital media/ devices from the above mentioned four accused persons is as under:- Sr. No. Name of Accused Recovered Digital Items Technical/ Forensic Evidence
01 Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed 12 Hard Disk Drives of main servers. 06 SATA Hard Drives of computers. CRM (Customers Relationship Management) System data containing passwords and profiles of the employees of axact. Some of the Software Projects of Axact used in the illegal business of Online Education. Deleted Virtual Machines which contained extortion/ threatening calls data (1.6 Terabyte data of calls). 02 Imran Ahmed Khan 04 SATA Hard Drives of computers Some of the Software Projects of Axact used in the illegal business of Online Education. Some of the Documents related to degrees, diplomas and transcripts of fake online Universities of Axact. 03 Atif Hussain 461 CDs/DVDs 26 Tape Cartridges 02 SATA Hard Disk Drives Main Shipment Server's data in which record of 215508 students along with Shipment detail and soft copy of degrees/ transcripts has been recovered. Threatening/ Extortions Voice calls data. Hosting data of online Universities/ Schools and other domains of axact. out of two recovered Hard drives one belonged to PW Umair Hamid, which contained incriminating material of the fake domains and companies of accused persons. 04 Adnan Saboor 03 SATA Hard Disk Drives Some of the Software Projects/ websites of Axact used in the illegal business of Online Education. list of 16 clients whose degrees have been legalized at 375 USD each.
From the forensic analysis of the recovered digital media from the above mentioned 04 accused it was identified that 3 out of all seized hard disk drives were in the personal use of 3 main accused, then forensic analysis of these 3 hard disk drives revealed that accused Imran Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Rizwan and Adnan Saboor hard disk drive Furthermore during the course of investigation, it also came on record that the Hard Disks of the computers of Administrative Process Management (APM) Department were also removed and destroyed on the direct orders of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh. Accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh intentionally and with mala fide intentions destroyed the incriminating material containing potential and important evidences pertaining to the selling/ issuance of fake and bogus degrees/ certificates of fictitious online educational institutions. In addition to above, it has also been established that the accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, CEO of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd directed his staff to delete all potential and incriminating data available at the servers of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd. The Forensic Team of National Response Center for Cyber Crime (NR3C) through its forensic examination has successfully identified the details of deleted VMs (Virtual Machines).
Furthermore, during the course of investigation, the Forensic Team of FIA, National Response Center for Cyber Crime (NR3C) conducted the forensic analysis of the computers and other digital/ electronic equipment of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd located at axact House, axact Street, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA, Karachi. During Forensic Analysis of the computers and other electronic/ digital equipment of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, it came on record that accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh through his team comprising of accused Zeeshan Ahmed, Zeeshan Anwer, Muhammad Sabir, Farhan Kamal and others is involved in illegally creating hundreds of fictitious online universities/ schools/accreditation bodies and other organizations for the purpose of cheating & defrauding foreign and Pakistani students.
The modus operandi of illegally creating and subsequently illegally operating fictitious online educational institutions so far discovered through investigation conclusively establishes the following:
Accused Zeeshan Ahmed, Head of Business Unit (BU), and Farhan Kamal, other Head of Business Unit, would conceive/ suggest the name of fictitious university/ school/ accreditation body or other organization to be created for the purpose of cheating and defrauding the students, employers, Governments and public servants. Thereafter, the Internal Audit (IA)/ Brand Management Department would verify following facts pertaining to suggested name of fictitious institutions: The suggested fictitious institution name doesn’t already exist on the web. The suggested fictitious institution name doesn’t violates any legal element. The suggested fictitious institution name doesn’t violate any trademarks or copyrights. The suggested fictitious institution name should not impersonate any famous personality. This was done in order to ensure that once launched no brand or rights holder would call unnecessary attention to the fictitious institution through a rights claim or alert any legal or law enforcement and thus, continue to function under the radar.
After completing above activities, accused Zeeshan Ahmed and Farhan Kamal used to accord final approval of the name of the institution. Thereafter, the “spoofed” domain name and “spoofed” website in the name of fictitiously created institution such as a university/ school /accreditation body and other organizations was acquired by Purchase Department from domain name providers in particular Direct NIC & InternetBS and Amazon, and Domain hosting providers Go-Daddy and Single Hop. In order to hide their identity, “spoofed” domain name/ website and hosting were purchased through front entities (proxy entities) such as "Domain Lance" and “Hosting Lance” controlled by the accused persons, namely Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh/ CEO, Viqas Atiq/ COO and other front persons through their International Relations Department. The evidences as per Forensics Reports show that the Bills for purchasing of domain names and hosting of domains and were issued by " Internet BS, Direct Nic and “Single Hop” in the names of "Domain lance and “Hosting Lance” but the payments of the bills were being made by a company in the name & style of “Outreach Global” incorporated in British Virgin Islands (BVI) – an Offshore Financial Centre (OFC)-and owned by accused Viqas Atiq, COO of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd. The above facts further establish that the fictitious institutions were owned by accused Shoaib Ahmed Ahmed Shaikh & Viqas Atiq and operated from the premises of axact House, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA, Karachi. From the domain and hosting management system of axact, 13495 domains (active and released) were extracted; out of 13495 domains 10213 domains were issued for fake and fraudulent Online Education Business Unit. These all domains were got registered from 71 domain registrars. The servers used for fake fraudulent Online Education were 180, and there were total 22 hosting service providers. There were total six internet and bandwidth service providers at axact listed as under: PTCL Transworld Cybernet NetSat Neatel Lhr. Connectel.
v. The technical/ forensic analysis of the domain and hosting management system of axact further revealed that out of 10213 domains of fake online education the business was earned and payments were received in respect of 238 domains. Out of 238 domains on which business was used to be earned, 166 domains were running under the team leadership/ supervision of accused Zeeshan Ahmed, President Online Education-I and 72 domains were running under the team leadership/ supervision of accused Farhan Kamal, President Online Education-II.
vi. During the course of investigation in the premises of Axact head office on 15 & 16 June 2015 under the supervision of Mr. Noor Muhammad Kalmati, Judicial Magistrate-XV, South Karachi a number of total 3391 domains of fake/ fraudulent universities/ colleges/ schools/ accreditation bodies and other organization, which actually have no physical existence as fraudulently created by axact, were extracted which were connected with and accessible by M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd that was hosted outside Pakistan and was available online on internet.
vii. The accused company mainly runs its fake online education system through its data center located at the first floor of the main head office of Axact Building. The company has established its own Hybrid Cloud (Private & Public Cloud both) in which different virtual machines (Hyper-Vizor VMware) of CRM Web Application (ASP & Visual C-Sharp), Telephony / Voice (Asterisk & MySQL), Web servers (Internet Information Services IIS) and Databases (SQL Server-2008 R2) were being run and managed. It is pertinent to mention here that hundreds of computers are installed at each floor of the building which is inter-connected to this data center through VLAN’s. These computers were used by different teams of the accused company i.e. Graphics Team, User Interface Team, Software Team, Network & Server Management Team, Sale Agents etc. It also came to light during the technical analysis that the company maintained and managed its different universities' projects databases in cloud computing environment for which the services were being hired from SingleHop USA, and many more. The storage/ data resides both at private and public clouds are 103 Tera Byte and up till now 70 % of the data (Virtual Machines) has been forensically analyzed and the forensic analysis reports in this regards have been submitted by the team of DD/ Forensic Experts of NR3C FIA. It is pertinent to mention here due to the huge amount of data the forensic analysis process is still going on and it is likely that the substantial important evidences/ data could come on record.
viii. In order to hoodwink and cheat students, the Brand Management Department of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd on the directions of accused person namely Zeeshan Ahmed used to place all details such as fake and fictitious faculty members, their pictures, pictures of students, other related pictures i-e facility rooms, laboratories, buildings etc, false physical addresses and Email address of fictitious institutions such as universities including other false and fabricated material on the “spoofed” websites of fictitious institutions.
ix. After completing the design of “spoofed” websites by Graphics & Multimedia Department and development of the “spoofed” website of the fictitiously created university/ school/ Accreditation and other organizations by user Interface (UI) Department, the website would go “live” on the worldwide web (www) through internet in order to solicit fraudulent enrollments, admissions, diplomas, degrees, certifications etc.
x. In addition, M/s axact employees used to place “Toll Free” phone numbers of United States of America (USA) and other foreign jurisdictions (that masked their true locations allowing impersonation and assisting in the fraud) as well as email addresses on the “spoofed” websites to give the impression to students that they were contacting/calling a representative of the genuine university/ school/ accreditation body and other organizations abroad (whereas in fact the institution and person contacted was not only fictitious but in also located in Pakistan) and obtain information about enrollment, admission, courses, packages and degrees etc. It is significant to point out that the “Toll Free” phone numbers of USA and other foreign jurisdictions have been purchased through fictitious / self created company namely VoIP Lance (www.voiplance.com) controlled by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh/ CEO, Viqas Atiq/ COO of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd through their IR (International Relations) Department, to mask their true ownership. These “Toll Free” phone numbers have been configured with the pool of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd to illegally terminate phone calls over an illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network/ server of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi located at axact House, DHA, Karachi, after by passing the legal gateway of PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) unauthorizedly. When a student/ customer used to call the “Toll Free” phone number of the fictitiously created institution/university/ school/ accreditation body and other organizations, the call was routed from the foreign number and terminated at the VoIP network/ server of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd which was further routed to the sales agents of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd pretending to be the representative of the genuine institution/university/ school/ accreditation body and other organizations. The imposter sales agents of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd used to impersonate themselves as representative of a genuine university/ school/ Accreditation body and other organizations, who used to illegally provide information about fictitious enrollment, admission, courses & degrees etc of fictitious university/ school/ Accreditation body and other organizations to the students.
xi. Furthermore, the accused management of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd used to make advertisements of the “spoofed” websites of the fictitiously created institution/university/ school/ Accreditation bodies, job portals and other organizations on various internet based advertisement mediums (Social Media) such as Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Bing, Yahoo and many other websites to lure the students so that they may get enrolled with them and get admissions in their fictitiously created university/ school/ Accreditation body and other organizations. As per Forensic Evidence extracted from the digital media installed at M/s axcat head office, the payments to these aforementioned companies for such advertisements were also being made through the front companies, such as Outreach Global, PCU and other companies, controlled by accused persons namely Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atiq and their other front persons.
xii. In order to further leverage the fraudulent, fake, fictitious educational institutions’ websites the accused also created a series of fake, fraudulent and fictitious recruitment/job agency web portals. In order to obtain leads of existing jobs being offered to the employees market the accused would steal jobs data (illegal access) from various legitimate job portals and placed those legit jobs on their own self created fake/ fraudulent job portals (e.g www.procruit.co and like others) without any authority in order to lure unsuspecting individuals to apply onto those recruitment/job agency web portals and upload their CVs. The accused also used to purchase CVs of job seekers from www.bayt.com in order to approach them through “phishing” forged and fraudulent emails to further lure them to upload their CVs and share their personal information. Using collected cold call, phishing email and advertising customer data leads the accused would have their employees contact these unsuspecting individuals impersonating as representative of recruitment agencies which in fact were merely the fake, fraudulent and fictitious recruitment/job agency web portals manned by M/s axact’s employees, who would lure the individuals suggesting that (their fake, fraudulent and fictitious) recruitment/job agency web portal had a matching job for them with the exception of the fact that they did not possess the requisite degree/certification/diploma. In conjunction with this the fake, fraudulent and fictitious recruitment/job agency web portal agent (actually an employee of M/s axact) would suggest that there are educational institutions available from which the individual could easily obtain the requisite degree/certification/diploma and would then connect the call with what appeared to be the fake and fictitious institution/university/school/ Accreditation body and other organizations controlled by the accused and M/s axact employees. During this process they would sold the false, fabricated, misleading, forged, diplomas, degrees and other documents. The job seekers were defrauded and cheated under the guise of receiving good job in multinational company and finally became the victims of the crime by purchasing fake and bogus degrees from fictitious universities owned and operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and others.
xiii. For selling the required degree for the particular job the victims were used to be trapped on the pretext that there is a requirement of thesis to be submitted in the University online on the particular subject. When the students/ victims showed their inability in submission of thesis, the sale agent used to offer them to get their thesis written from the website actually created by M/s axact. In this regard they had developed such software programs which used to alter/ modify the genuine thesis and research works stolen by them from different legitimate/ genuine websites and used to sell the same to the students, so that they can send their thesis to universities and obtain degrees. One Business Unit of Axact namely “Research “was created for this purpose to support the fake and fraudulent business of Online Education. A team of research business unit under the supervision of accused Haris Siddique Senior Vice President Business Unit, with the common intention of other accused created number of fake fraudulent fictitious phishing websites/ domains for the process of selling of fake and fraudulent research/ thesis work for Phd students/ customers of axact.
xiv. In addition to the creation of fictitious institutions/ universities/ schools/ job portals the accused also created fake/ fraudulent Accreditation bodies and other organizations and using the similar modus operadni as detailed for the fictitious institutions/universities/ schools/ job portals, the accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh in connivance with accused Zeeshan Ahmed, President/ Head of Business Unit (BU), Farhan Kamal, Senior Executive Vice President/ Head of Business Unit, Zeeshan Anwer, Executive Vice President/ Head of Software Department also illegally and with mala fide intentions created false, fake, fictitious, fraudulent, accreditation bodies/ councils/ organizations pretending and posing as established and credible Accreditation Organizations. The details of fictitious Accreditation Organizations/ bodies/ councils created by accused persons are as under: S# Name of Accreditation Bodies/ Organization
01 American Accreditation Council of Business Education (AACBE)
02 Araba Accreditation Council
03 Arab Accreditation Council
04 British Distance Learning Accreditation Council
05 Central American Council of Accreditation
06 Commission for Information Accreditation
07 Commission for Information Technology Academic Accreditation
08 European Accreditation Board of Higher Education
09 European Accreditation Board of Online Education
10 European Accreditation Council for Online Learning
11 Global Accreditation Board for Distance Learning
12 Global Accreditation Council
13 Global Accreditation Council for Business Education (GACBE)
14 Global Accreditation Council for Engineering Education (GACEE)
15 Global Council of Higher Education Accreditation (GCHEA)
16 GPM Accreditation Council
17 Gulf Accreditation Council for IT Professional
18 Gulf Accreditation Council for Information Technology
19 Gulf Cooperation Council Accreditation Commission (gccac)
20 International Business Accreditation & Regulatory Commission
21 International Business Accreditation & Regulatory Authority
22 International Accreditation Board for Business Studies (IABBS)
23 International Accreditation Board for Psychology Education (IABPE)
24 International Accreditation Council for Open Education (IACOE)
25 International Accreditation Council of Engineering Professional
26 International Accreditation Council of Nursing & Health Science (IACNHS)
27 International Accreditation Organization (IAO)
28 International Accreditation Organization Corporate Network (IAOCN)
29 International Board for Accredited IT Education
30 International Board for Accreditation Education
31 International Business Education Accreditation Council
32 Middle East Accreditation Board
33 Middle East Accreditation Council
34 World Accreditation Commission for Engineering Education
It has been established through cogent evidence obtained during the investigation beyond reasonable doubt that these fictitious Accreditation Organizations/ bodies/ councils were owned and operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and other accused persons in order to cheat and defraud students, the organizations accredited and all those to whom these accreditations were displayed and represented. These fictitious Accreditation Organizations/ bodies/ councils were illegally and fraudulently created by the accused persons to hide the lack of credibility of their
xv. fictitious universities/ schools/ institutions to avoid detection by any law enforcement agency/ regulator/ educational institutions/ job providers etc. In order to fraudulently and falsely give credibility to the so-called genuineness, the “spoofed” domain names and websites of these fictitious Accreditation Organizations/ bodies/ councils were created/ hosted on worldwide web (www) in similar fashion as “spoofed” domain names/ websites of fictitious universities/ schools/ institutions were created/ hosted. It has also been established, during the course of investigation, that accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh in connivance and with common criminal intention with Zeeshan Ahmed, Farhan Kamal, Zeeshan Anwer and other accused persons have extorted millions of dollars from innocent students, employees, organizations and other targets under the garb of accreditation of fake and bogus degrees/ certificates of fictitious universities/ schools/ institutions.
xvi. The fact that the aforementioned universities/ schools/ Accreditation bodies and other organizations were fictitious and owned & operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh in connivance with other accused persons from axact House, Karachi has also been corroborated by evidence that the accused and their employees would alter the GPA of the student at will. The only requirement for having higher GPA was the amount of MONEY they could extort. The greater the extortion, the higher the GPA. Furthermore, the fictitious institutions/universities/ schools/ Accreditation and other organizations, owned and operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and his accomplices, also provided the illegal services of providing fake, fraudulent and fabricated degrees/ certificates in backdates in exchange for hefty payments. Applicants to these fictitious institutions/universities/ schools/ Accreditation bodies and other organizations in a particular year would on payment acquire degrees that were backdated several years before even their admission. Once again, the only requirement was MONEY. The aforementioned illegal acts of providing GPA as per the will and wish of student and backdate degree were used to be performed by software team headed by Zeeshan Anwer, Executive Vice President (EVP) of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd. Accused Zeeshan Anwer knowingly created such softwares and offered services to the students which could provide backdated degrees and higher GPAs. All these illegal and fraudulent activities were being committed by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and his accomplice/ accused persons. It also corroborates that the accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh in connivance with accused Zeeshan Anwer, Zeeshan Ahmed, Viqas Atiq and other accused persons is involved in the heinous business of preparing, issuing, selling and using fake and bogus degrees/ certificates of fictitious institutions/universities/ schools/ Accreditation bodies and other organizations and minting huge sums of dollars – the proceeds of crime.
xvii. During investigation through forensic examination evidence of impersonation, fraud, blackmail, extortion and serious offences have been made out and established beyond reasonable doubt. In an organized and systemic manner the recipients of the fake, fraudulent, fictitious degrees/certifications/diplomas/other documents would be further sold fake, false, fictitious, fabricated attestation, notarization, legalization, apostille and visa services. Once a recipient would be caught in the net of having received fake degrees which the recipient would have applied for attestation, notarization, legalization, apostle and visa services the recipient was blackmailed and threatened by M/s axact employees posing to be the legal/ genuine recruitment agency and impersonating to be the official of Embassy, Consulate and Government organizations and public servants to apply pressure and duress upon the recipients. As part of this evidence it has been established from the records obtained that accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and his accomplices devised various innovative methods to mint money. The accused persons not only dishonestly induced innocent students to acquire degrees/ certificates from fake/ fictitious universities/ schools/ Accreditation and other organizations owned and operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and his accomplices but also blackmailed them for the purpose of extortion to pay huge sums of dollars in lieu of attestation of degrees/ certificates. This business of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd is called as up-sale business. During forensic analysis of the computers, digital equipment and other electronic/ digital material of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, it has been established that the imposter sales staff of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd used to extort students by impersonating themselves as embassy staff of embassies of United States of America (USA), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and other countries and threatened the innocent students that their degrees/ certificates/ accreditation letters are fake and forged and the same need to be verified by the embassy. Furthermore, the imposter sales staff of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd also blackmailed recipients of the fake degrees and students to pay huge sums of dollars (extortion money) in order to avoid any legal consequences. In order to hide their identity, accused persons with the connivance and common intention with each other, also installed sophisticated voice/ calling systems (voice Telephony) at axact House, Karachi which were being used for hiding the caller ID of calling persons. This act of hiding caller ID (illegal access, tampering, modification and generation) was used to impersonate sales staff of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi as embassy staff and make feel the call receiver as if he is receiving call from the embassy.
xviii. The accused persons used to receive payments in lieu of enrollment, admission, examination, issuance of degrees, certificates, verification of degree, accreditation, attestation and other related fees as well as extortion money through credit cards in the merchant accounts of companies opened and operated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atiq, Ali Ghaffar Vyajkora, Uzma Shaheen and others. The said payments in merchant accounts as discussed above were being received in United States of America (USA)/ other foreign jurisdiction through merchant service providers such as Meritus Payments, Chain Commerce, Pay Pal, CCNow, Money Bookers, Merchant E Solutions, Global Payments, Chae Payment Tech, Elavon and 2 Checkout. The details of merchant accounts, opened and operated by accused Shaoib Ahmed Shaikh in his name and in the names of other accused persons are as under: S.No Merchant Account Name Merchant Provider Merchant Provider Country Company / Legal Name Owner of the Company Company Country Settlement Bank Settlement Bank Country
1 DataProtecto Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA Citi Bank USA
2 Learnicle Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA Citi Bank USA
3 Device Cart Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
4 Brand Crux Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
5 Appnotech Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
6 Appostrophic Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
7 Learning EMS Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
8 Brit Educationist Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
9 Global Academic Center Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
10 Universal Academics Service Meritus Payments USA Mivvel Ali Ghaffar and Viqas Atiq USA BMO Harris USA
11 Acquire and learn Meritus Payments USA Tullow Zubair M Syed and Shoaib Shaikh USA Citi Bank USA
12 Edu world 360 Meritus Payments USA Tullow Zubair M Syed and Shoaib Shaikh USA Citi Bank USA
13 Deice Deals 2 Checkout USA IT Device Pro Shoaib Shaikh USA BMO Harris USA
14 Worldwide Research Service 2Checkout USA Outreach Global Shoaib Shaikh BVI HBL UAE
15 Universal Research Services 2Checkout USA Outreach Global Shoaib Shaikh BVI HBL UAE
16 UK Research Services 2Checkout USA Outreach Global Shoaib Shaikh BVI HBL UAE
17 Global Educationist 2Checkout USA Outreach Global Shoaib Shaikh BVI HBL UAE
18 Edutech Sol 2Checkout USA Outreach Global Shoaib Shaikh BVI HBL UAE
19 Global Mobile App Services 2Checkout USA Tinko Uzma Shaheen & Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh USA BMO Harris USA
20 The Education Services Multi Cards Netherland Connect shift Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh Cyprus Helinic Bank Cyprus
21 Research Paper Zone Money Bookers UK Connect shift Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh Cyprus Helinic Bank Cyprus
22 Edulive Pro ELAVON USA Tullow Zubair M Syed and Shoaib USA Citi Bank USA
23 Design Hike ELAVON USA Tullow Zubair M Syed and Shoaib USA Citi Bank USA
24 Paramount California University BOA Merchant USA Paramount California University Brett Howartt USA BOA USA
25 Easy Learn Pro Global Payments USA Tinko Uzma Shaheen & Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh USA BMO Harris USA
26 Edu Tech Nova Global Payments USA Tullow Zubair M Syed and Shoaib USA Citi Bank USA
27 Almeda Merchant E Solutions USA Almeda Brett Howartt USA Citi Bank USA
28 Global Academia Services CCNOW Iceland Connect shift Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh Cyprus HBL UAE
29 Max Research Services CCNOW Iceland Connect shift Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh Cyprus HBL UAE
30 Education Slate Chain Commerce Mauritius Mivvel Zubair M Syed and Shoaib Shaikh USA BMO Harris USA Education Voir
31 Education Voir Chain Commerce Mauritius Mivvel Zubair M Syed and Shoaib Shaikh USA BMO Harris USA Furthermore, the money so received in the merchant accounts was used to be transferred in the different bank accounts of companies of accused persons, which is detailed as under:- S# Account Title Bank A/c No Bank/ Branch
01 Mivvel Inc 000801136729 Citi Bank, USA
02 Mivvel Inc 4813053181 BMO Haris Bank, USA
03 Tullow Inc 000801180256 Citi Bank, USA
04 Tullow Inc 46-5037-4635 PNC Bank, USA
05 Tullow Inc 7240753645 Fifth Third Bank, USA
06 Tullow Inc 4813051901 BMO Haris Bank, USA
07 IT Device Pro Inc 4815204403 BMO Haris Bank, USA
08 Tinko Inc 000801209734 Citi Bank, USA
09 Tinko Inc 0029 1299 7733 Bank of America
10 Pitko Inc. 000000989994538 Chase Bank
11 Payment Profs 000203690664 Citi Bank, USA
12 Almeda Educational Services 9138652725 Citi Bank, USA
13 PCU 898060549713 Bank of America, USA
14 PCU 898060525436 Bank of America, USA
15 Global Academics 898063612362 Bank of America, USA
16 Paramount California University 711595160 JP Morga Chase
17 Blitzace Inc 3830 1263 8954 Bank of America, Bracebridge Branch
18 Blitzace Inc 3830 1458 3023 Bank of America, Bracebridge Branch
35 Techosol Ltd, 00353-15134199 Allied Irish Bank PLC
The aforementioned bank accounts were opened in the name of front/ shell companies under the directorship/ ownership/ partnership of Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atiq and other front persons. The aforementioned front/ shell companies as well as their bank accounts were controlled by accused Shoab Ahmed Shaikh and Viqas Atiq. After receiving payments from the victim students, the fake, fabricated, false and forged degrees/ certificates, accreditation letters, verification letters, transcripts and other related documents were being issued to the victim students containing false, fabricated and forged digital signatures pretending to have been signed by Vice Chancellor and other related staff of the university whereas the said digital signatures were developed/ designed by the employees of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd at axact House, Karachi. Thereafter, the contents of the degrees/ certificates and other related documents (Name of the Student, Name of the Faculty/ Degree, Name of Registrar/Dean/Vice Chancellor etc) were got printed by the staff of Administrative Process Management (APM) Department of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd located at First Floor, Plot No. 125-C, Jami Commercial Street No. 14, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA Karachi. The degrees/ certificates were shipped to the victim students through Courier Company in the name & style of Dreamco Express (Pvt) Ltd and other courier companies. In order to give impression to the students that the degree/ certificate has been shipped from USA or other foreign jurisdictions, the shipments were initially sent to the office of M/s axact FZ LLC, Dubai, UAE. From Dubai, the shipments were sent to USA and from USA separate shipments/consignments were sent to the individual students. The Shipment flow is as under:
Physical Shipment (For US Customers) Vendor Name Service Processing Steps Courier US Locations
Axact Dreamco Express Boxes containing the envelops of degrees etc were sent to each US locations (CA,VA, KS). California
All Boxes were first shipped to Dubai. Virginia
From Dubai each box then was shipped to US location using DHL Courier services. Through DHL Kansas
At US locations boxes were opened and the envelope containing the degree etc were individually sent to customers on their respective addresses printed on each envelope.
UPS Courier Services was used for delivery of US based Students/customers.
Physical Shipment (For International Customer Excluding US Customers) Vendor Service Processing Steps Courier Service
Axact Dreamco Express All Boxes containing the envelops of degrees etc were sent to Dubai.
From Dubai location envelopes containing the degrees etc were individually sent to customers of different countries on their respective addresses printed on each envelope through DHL and Aramex Couriers. DHL / Aramex
Immediate Express Courier service was used to deliver envelope of degrees etc to UAE Students/ Customers. Immediate Express
Physical Shipment (Israel Shipment Only) Vendor Service Processing Steps Courier Service
Axact Dreamco Express All Boxes containing the envelops of degrees etc were sent to Singapore.
From Singapore location envelopes containing the degrees etc were individually sent to customers of Israel on their respective addresses printed on each envelope through DHL Couriers. DHL
As per Forensic analysis the record extracted from the database of shipment server of M/s axact 215508 students of different countries have been shipped degrees from M/s axact against the payments of different amounts in US dollars. As per Forensic analysis the record extracted from Unireport database of M/s axact 240234 students of different countries have been issued degrees/ certificates from axact. Out of total 240234 students, 321 Pakistani students have been identified. Notices were sent to those Pakistanis whose addresses were complete. Ten of the total Pakistani students/ victims joined the investigation and recorded their statements U/S 161 Cr.PC as prosecution witnesses. Out of ten Pakistani students/ victims the record of seven Pakistani students/ victims have been extracted from CRM. It is pertinent to mention here that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system was an in-house developed latest software product of axact which was developed and used online since the year 2010, that why the complete record of all previous students/ victims including the Pakistani students was not inserted/ fed in CRM. During the course of investigation the Forensic Team of FIA technically analyzed an in-house developed software of axact known as "Performance System". The investigation revealed that the software was developed for the purpose of monitoring the performance of Sale Agents and their supervisory officers. The performance was used to be gauged on the number of students trapped, degrees sold, amount received and afterwards up-selling made of other products by the Sale Agents. On the basis of their performance the salaries as well as other benefits of Sale Agents and their supervisory officers were used to be increased. Every Sale Agent had been allotted a pseudo name by his supervisory officer in order to pose to students that the person calling is a representative of University/ School/ Accreditation and other Organizations of USA etc. By this way the accused persons were hiding their true identity. From the performance data base 841127 performance records of different Sale Agents have been extracted which contained name of sale Agent, his pseudo name and the number of students successfully handled amount received. The "Performance System" software was also developed by axact in the year 2010. It is pertinent to mention here that the Performance Software was developed by accused Muhammad Rizwan under the supervision/ idea of accused Zeeshan Anwar and with the connivance and common intention with other accused persons. During the course of investigation the payment server of M/s axact was forensically analyzed which revealed that, the website in the name of billing.fastsol.com was used for finance management system of axact. This website was created and developed at axact and contained the earnings from of fake/ fraudulent Online education. As the said website was created in the year 2009, so the records extracted further revealed that from the year 2009 to 2015 a total of 205811492.4 US dollors have been pocketed from the students/ customers by selling the fake/ fraudulent degrees/ diplomas in the name of online education. During the course of investigation, it has also come on the record that the M/s Adman Printing Press was printing/ providing/ supplying material for the fake, fabricated, false and forged Degree Certificates, Envelopes, Folders, Letter Heads, Stickers, Transcripts, Legalization/ Prospectus Brochures, Catalog Brochure, Degree Program Brochures, Art Card with lamination, Large Stickers, Referral Cards, Referral Pamphlets, Trifold Pamphlets, Leather Folds, Application Forms of fictitious universities/ accreditation certificates of various fictitious foreign accreditation bodies, yellow papers & Foil Degrees to M/s axact (Pvt) Limited. It also corroborates that illegal acts from the creation of fictitious university/ school/ Accreditation and other organizations to the illegal issuance and shipment of fake and bogus degree were illegally and dishonestly done in the premises of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd located at axact House, Karachi and PIA Building located at First Floor, Plot No. 125-C, Jami Commercial Street No. 14, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase-VII, DHA Karachi. It has also been established through cogent evidences that these fictitious universities/ schools/ Accreditation bodies and other organizations were owned and operated, by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh in connivance and common criminal intention with accused Viqas Atiq, Zeeshan Ahmed, Zeeshan Anwer, Muhammad Sabir, Farhan Kamal and other accused persons, from the premises of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd. The cogent evidences also corroborate that accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and other accused persons are generating proceeds of crime of millions of dollars from the commission of offences of impersonation, cheating, fraud, forgery, preparation of fake and forged documents, submission of forged documents as genuine and extortion. These proceeds of crime were subsequently laundered by placing the funds in different bank/ merchant accounts, layering the funds by transferring the same into different bank accounts and subsequently integrating the proceeds of crime in economy by purchasing various assets, properties and hefty spending on lavish lifestyle. In order to conceal and disguise the true nature, identity, location, movement and sources of illegally obtained proceeds, in order to appear to have been originated from legitimate sources/ income, accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and Viqas Atiq in connivance with other front persons have opened various bank accounts in USA, OFCs and other parts of world in the names of front/ shell companies owned by them and their front persons. These merchant and bank accounts are being used by accused persons for placement of proceeds of the crimes detailed above being obtained in the guise of so-called IT services. During course of investigation conducted so far it has also been established that in order to give so-called legitimacy to the proceeds of crime, the accused persons are continuously layering the proceeds of crime by transferring the proceeds of crime from one bank account to another bank account maintained at different banks/ branches and jurisdictions of world. The details of various bank accounts opened at different banks/ branches of USA, OFCs and other countries have already been mentioned above. During the course of investigation, it has also come on record that proceeds of crime received/ placed in aforementioned bank accounts were also used for payments to international vendors of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, Pakistan such as Google, Linkedin for advertisement of websites of fictitious educational institutions; for website hosting etc. Furthermore, the proceed of crime received/ placed in aforementioned bank accounts of accused persons were being temporarily parked into bank accounts titled axact FZ LLC, Dubai, UAE maintained at Standard Chartered Bank, Dubai, UAE; Habib Bank Limited, Dubai, UAE and other banks/ branches. The proceeds of crime were finally being landed/ transferred into bank accounts opened in the name of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atiq and their front persons namely Ayesha Shaoib w/o accused Shaoib Ahmed, Naseem Akhtar Mughal mother of accused Shaoib Ahmed Shaikh, Asim Sardar and other front persons maintained at different banks/ branches in Pakistan. The details of bank accounts being used by accused persons in Pakistan for laundering the proceeds of crime are as under:
S.# TITLE OF A/C A/c Type A/C No. BANK / BRANCH Status / Remarks
01 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 8543848902 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Approx USD 3,000,000/- transferred monthly from Axact LLC and sometimes from Tullow PTE Ltd. Salaries of approx 2,000,000/- were made to Axact employees from this account.
02 Axact Pvt Ltd. PKR 0606-79476956-01 HBL High Court branch Signatory Shoaib / Viqas / Adeel/ M. Zeeshan. Bal: 198,766/-. Total Cr. 54,229,504/. Amount transferred from Axact HBL & SCB
03 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79000485-03 HBL FTC branch Total Cr. 447,033,146.71/- Bal: 24,420/-
04 Axact Pvt. Ltd. USD 1216-79000772-10 HBL FTC branch 04.02.2008. Total Cr. 59,971,465/-. Funds from Axact LLC.
05 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79000812-03 HBL FTC Branch 22.02.2008. Total Cr. 328,189,268/-. Bal: NIL
06 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79000812-99 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 598,688,146/- Bal: NIL
07 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79001055-03 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 242,990,000/- Bal: NIL
08 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79001185-99 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 856,090/- Bal: NIL
09 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79002322-01 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 8,090,369,976/- Bal: 76,236.25/-
10 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79002955-99 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 6,254,642/- Bal: NIL
11 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79003409-03 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 350,000,000/- Bal: NIL
12 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79003859-03 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 3,500,000/- Bal: NIL
13 Axact Pvt. Ltd. PKR 1216-79006943-03 HBL FTC Branch Total Cr. 2,000,000/- Bal: NIL
14 Axact Employee Provident Fund PKR 1216-79010814-01 HBL FTC Branch Adeel Arshad, Zeeshan Ahmed & Ali Ghaffar Vyajkora are signatory. No transaction since opening in 2007.
15 Axact Pvt. Ltd PKR 0541-79881693-03 HBL DHS Branch 26.04.2014. Cr. 25,374,360/- . Signatories are Ayesha/ Shoaib / Viqas / Adeel/ M. Zeeshan. Resolution for Viqas, Zeeshan and Adeel submitted. Bal: 198,766/-.
16 Axact Pvt. Ltd PKR 0541-79880911-01 HBL DHS Branch 20.03.2014 Total CR. Rs. 1,540,674,174/- funds credited from A/c NO. 2322-01 FTC, 1693-03 DHS, Naseem Akhtar DHS and from USD A/c. amount transferred to DHS A/c of Axact. and A/c No. 00129927671586 also. Salaries disbursed.
17 Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh. PKR 1216-7900529903 HBL FTC Branch 21.02.2011. total Cr. 5,000/- Bal: 3,845/-
19 Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh PKR 0012-00011728-01 HBL Zamzama Branch Opened on 04.10.2006. Cr.53,964,033/-. Bal: 1,337,779/- Funds transfer from 1216-7900-2223-03 and Naseem Akhtar accounts. PO of Rs. 9 million issued in July 2013.
20 Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh USD 0012-79003991-10 HBL Zamzama Branch Opened on 26.08.2013. CR. USD 44,177/- BAL: 11,375-. Total Cash deposits
21 Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh & Naseem Akhtar PKR 1216-7900222303 HBL FTC Branch 05.03.2009. Cr. 1,127,682,708/- Bal: 168,736/-
22 Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh & Naseem Akhtar USD 1216-7900222510 HBL FTC Branch 05.03.2009 Cr. 11,696,119/- Bal: 2,645/- fund transfers/ credited and cash withdrawals.
24 Naseem Akhtar Mughal USD 0541-7988122010 HBL DHS Branch Mandate of Shoaib. Opened on may 2014. Cr. 4,509,589/-. Mostly cash withdrawals
25 Naseem Akhtar Mughal PKR 0541-79881074-03 HBL DHS Branch Mandate of Shoaib. Opened on April 2014. Cr. Rs. 554,784,694/-mostly cash withdrawals.
26 Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh USD 0541-79880909-10 HBL DHS Branch Opened on 10.03.2014. Cr/Dr. 6,794,140/-. Bal: 380,135/-. Funds transferred from Axact LLC Dubai as a Director personal withdrawal.
27 Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh PKR 0541-79880908-03 HBL DHS Branch 10.03.2014. Cr. 659,070,920/-. Bal: Rs. 3,624,270/-. Fund transfers from above USD account. Funds transfer to A/c No. 0541-7988091001.
28 Shoaib ahmed Sheikh PKR 185778859014 Kh-e-Ittehad Total Cr. 4000/- saving account.
29 Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh USD 05577885902 Kh-e-Ittehad Opened on 2009. Total Cr. 2000/- saving account. Bal: USD 2,498/-
31 Viqas Atiq USD 1577886702 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch USD 15,000/- credited monthly by Axact FZ LLC in 2015. Bal: 46,525.72/- total Cr. From 2008 to 2015 is USD 858,016/- from Dubai.
32 Viqas Atiq PKR 1577886701 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Funds transferred from his USD account total Cr. 72,942,663/- from 2008 to 2015 Bal: 3,114,118/-
33 Shazia Asim / Muhammad Asim USD 1702909901 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Approx USD 6000 to 25000 USD credited monthly by Axact LLC. Bal: USD 49.24/-
34 Shazia Asim / Muhammad Asim PKR 1702909901 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Rs. 6 Lac to 19 Lac Cr/Dr. Bal: 2,524,132/-. (need Cr/Dr vouchers)
35 Muhammad Asim PKR 1577844101 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Amount transferred from his USD A/c. amounts transferred to his ABL account. funds for Axact. Bal: 458,373/-.
37 Zeeshan Anwer PKR 1544261301 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Karachi Cr. From may 2014-2015 Rs. 8,023,508/- from conversion USD. Bal: 3,064,350/-
38 Zeeshan Anwer / Sumaiya PKR 1162395801 SCB Kh-e-Ittehad Branch Karachi Rs. 200,000/- credited from May 2014 to Jan 2015. Bal: 307,943/-
39 Muhammad Zeeshan Ahmed USD 1334833401 SCB Hill Park Branch Total Cr. USD 1,069,173/-. USD 750,000/- in last 2 years by Axact LLC. Bal: USD 26,559.94/-
40 Muhammad Zeeshan Ahmed PKR 1334833401 SCB Hill Park Branch Approx Rs. 25 lac to 40 lac transferred monthly from his USD account. Bal: Rs. 68,199,391/- Major Cash deposits, dollar conversions and I-banking transfers. Total Cr. 168,578,053.88/-
41 Farhan Kamal USD 1162395702 SCB Kh-e-Hafiz branch Approx USD 7000 to 15000 credited monthly by Axact LLC. Bal: USD 95,004.22/-
42 Farhan Kamal PKR 1162395701 SCB Kh-e-Hafiz branch Amounts transferred from his USD A/c. Bal: Rs. 768/-
43 Farhan Kamal PKR 1406045801 SCB Nursery Branch Amounts transferred from his USD A/c. Bal: Rs. 470,645/-
Eventually, the proceeds of crime have been integrated by accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and Viqas Atiq in the economy of Pakistan by purchasing various tangible and intangible assets such as Properties, IT Devices (Main servers and VOIP Telephony/Setup), Vehicles, Furniture, Mobile Phones and other goods/ services. Furthermore, the proceeds of crime have also been utilized in meeting out the expenditures for successfully running the affairs of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd, Pakistan such as payment to local vendors, salaries to employees, maintenance of vehicles, fuel payments to Shell Pakistan Ltd, rental payments of rented properties and other related expenditures. In addition to above, the accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh has also laundered the proceeds of crime by investing the funds into different front businesses/ enterprises. During the course of investigation, it is established that accused namely Ali Abdul Ghaffar Vyajkora for the purpose of minting money from the students / client through Banks & Merchant Accounts opened those Accounts in USA. For the purpose, they established several companies as front offices to act as payment processor in USA and commission agents for all these sale proceeds. In order to open bank account or merchant accounts, accused persons were in need of US national as the Tax ID were mandatorily required to open/maintain/operate bank accounts/merchant account. In this regard, Directors of Axact (Pvt) Ltd and accused persons named above used USA IDs of (1) accused Ali Ghaffar Vyajkora, Head, Human Resources Department, Axact (Pvt) Ltd, (2) Zubair Syed (brother in law of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh) (3) Uzma Shaheen Syed (sister of accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh). Accused Ali Ghaffar Vyajkora, Head, Human Resources Department, Axact (Pvt) Ltd. used to receive / charge US $ 2000 per month from accused Directors of M/s Axact (Pvt) Ltd. on account of opening bank/merchant account in USA and his ID was being utilized for commission of crime. PWs namely Adeel Arshad, Head of Finance Department, Muhammad Imran, Manager (Finance), and Rahim Sadruddin, Associate Vice President, Internal Audit, M/s Axact Private Limited, implicated accused Ali Abdul Ghaffar Vyajkora, Head of HR Department in commission of crime.
Moreover, during the course of investigation, following accused persons were arrested on 17.06.2015, they by way of disguising themselves used to contact clients to whom Axact (Pvt) Limited had issued fake/forged/bogus degree/diploma certificates of different fake/forged foreign universities/schools for the purpose of extorting of money from each. On contact with each clients/students, the accused persons were frightening/threatening them to get their degree/diploma certificates legalized and to get equalization, verification of embassy and attestation and in lieu of that they were charging funds ranging from US $ 400 to US $ 400000; and in case of client/student was not agreeing to their extortionist demands, he/ she was threatened by the accused of such actions as initiating legal action, cancelling registration, making their degrees worthless, and getting him/her deported back to his/her native country. Voice transcript and voice recording of each of the following accused persons was secured by forensic team of FIA and which was sent to Director Cyber Crimes (NR3C) FIA Hqrs. Islamabad, for forensic analysis and reports:- 1 Muhammad Adnan s/o Amir Ali, Assistant Vice President, M/s Axact Pvt. Ltd. r/o D-04, Al Aman Colony, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block-14, Karachi. CNIC No. 42101-7095474-5.
2 Murad Akhtar s/o Akhtar Sadaruddin, Associate Architect, M/s Axact Private Limted. r/o Flat No. H-33, Saleemabad Colony, Block-14, Federal B. Area, Karachi CNIC no. 42201-8476776-1.
3 Vivian Christopher Campos s/o Alex Campos, Sales Professional, international Sales, m/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi. r/o Flat No. 60, Mariyam Apartment, Cantt. Station, Karachi. NICOP no. 423011-001622-9.
4 Fahad Ali Ansari s/o Hamid Ali Ansari, AVP, International Sales, Axact Private Limited. r/o Plot No. 9-C, 4th Commercial Street, Khayaban-e-Bukhari, Phase-VI, DHA, Karachi CNIC No. 42301-5544027-7.
The voice forensic analysis report received from Mehmood Ul Hassan Deputy Director Cyber Crimes (NR3C) FIA HQ Islamabad, concluded that the threatening/extortion calls extracted from the CRM (Customers Relationship Management) system of Axact in respect of above mentioned 04 accused persons are matching with their recorded voices/samples.
On further technical forensic analysis of voice data extracted from the X download server of axact related to above mentioned four accused persons a number of other extorting/ threatening calls were found in which they posed/pretended them to the student that they were the representative of Embassies and other officials of state and universities and thus extracted money from the students on one or the other pretext. Besides, a total of 1600 G.B data of such threatening/extortion calls establishing the entire process from attempting to extort money to the successful extortion through luring as well as threatening by different sales agents have been extracted from the X download server of M/s axact.
During the course of investigation, a letter vide No.FIA/CCCK/FIR-07/2015/6908-09, dated 21.08.2015, was sent to Director General Attestation and Accreditation, Higher Education Commission Islamabad, mentioning therein names of 48 universities and accreditation councils as detailed in the FIR for the authentication/veracity of these foreign universities and accreditation councils. In response, the Director (Attestation and Accreditation), Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, vide his letter No. 8-33/HEC/A&A/2015/1976, dated 27.08.2015, informed that as per information contained in international directories like “International Hand Book of Universities“ published by UNESCO (www.whed.net) and “Accredited Institution of Post Secondary Education” published by American Counsel on Higher Education (www.che.org), none of these universities/ institutions as mentioned in FIR is listed amongst the charted universities/ Degree awarding institutions.
As the alleged company M/s axact has registered itself with SECP as an exporter of I.T and I.T-related items, so during the course of investigation when the accused company and its CEO was asked to provide the details of software exported to foreign buyers, the accused persons have not replied/provided details of exports/documentary evidence in support of the exports themselves or through their counsels till the date of filing this challan.
In its financial statements/ Annual Audited Accounts, ending for years the year June 30, 2013 and June 30, 2014, signed by the Directors of the company, namely Accused Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh and Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh in the “Notes to the Financial Statement” have mentioned in para No. 1, which pertains to “Status and Nature of Business” that “The company is engaged in Software Exports”. But both the Memorandum and Articles of Association of M/s Axact (Pvt) limited and the company’s Annual Audited Accounts, ending the year June 30, 2013 and June 2014, provided by Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, do no mention/show that the company is engaged in providing the back-end support to foreign educational institutions i.e. Universities, Schools and Accreditation bodies from enrollment of the students to the shipments of degrees, diplomas, certificates and accreditation letters and receive payments in this regard in the accounts of the company. During the bail proceeding of accused persons their lawyers/ defense counsels also took the plea that the accused company, its CEO and other nominated accused persons were providing the back-end support to Universities, Schools, Accreditation bodies regarding the issuance of degrees, diplomas and certificates, but they also failed to produce any single agreement/ contract signed with foreign Universities, Schools, or Accreditation bodies in proof of their claims that the accused company and its CEO and others were providing the back-end support. The record obtained from SECP i.e Memorandum and Article of Association of M/s axcat is also silent in this regard. On the other hand, when during the course of investigation the list of hundreds of fake/ fictitious Universities, Schools the domains of which were extracted from the computer systems of Axact under the supervision of Judicial Magistrate-XV, South, Karachi and hundreds of thousands degrees seized under the supervision of Judicial Magistrate-V, South, Karachi along with details of companies based in USA in the accounts /merchant accounts of those, the payments from the students all over the world were used to be received in lieu of selling of fake/fictitious degrees and accreditation bodies were sent to FIA Headquarters, Islamabad, from the office of Director FIA, Sindh, Karachi vide letter No. FIA/DSK/FIR-07/2015/CCCK/A-3706-07 dated 05.11.2015 with request to forward the same to USA authorities to confirm the authenticity of said Universities/ Schools and Accreditation bodies and bank account, merchant accounts of the companies in which the payments in millions of US dollar have been received from the students all over the world, then in response of our letter two letters from the office of Legal Attache, United States Embassy, Islamabad, Pakistan vide No.IS-C163-ANY-6434502 dated 09 December,2015 and No.IS-C163-ANY-6434502 dated 08 February,2016 received through Office of Director, FIA, Islamabad Zone vide letter No. DIZ/R-7/Case-56(AXACT)NR3C/RWP/15/8404-05 dated 25.02.2016, in which it has been confirmed that the Universities in question are fake and linked to alleged online fraudulent activity involving false degrees and illegitimate diploma producing organizations . The reply received through the letter No.IS-C163-ANY-6434502 dated 09 December,2015 from the office of Legal Attache, United States Embassy, Islamabad is reproduced as under:-
(List of 18 universities from the total Universities/ schools sent by FIA Karachi has been mentioned in the letter).
The conclusive and irrefutable confirmation of the fact that the company, its CEO and other accused persons were running a fraudulent business of selling fake degrees/accreditations/attestation etc has been received from the Legal Attache, United States Embassy, Islamabad, vide letter No.IS-C163-ANY-6434502, dated 09 December,2015, which is reproduced as under:- The FBI has been investigating a Pakistan-based entity name Axact. Ongoing investigation has identified as “diploma mill”, orchestrated by Axact, and headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. Among engaging in other nefarious activity, Axact’s primary scheme of illegality pertains to soliciting the sale of fictitious college and high school diplomas to both witting and unwitting purchasers. The vast majority of purchasers have been identified as located both within the United States and throughout the Middle East. "In furtherance of this scheme, Axact has established a worldwide web of shell companies and associates. The shell companies have been used to veil Axact funds and proceeds, to further facilitate the transport of the fictitious diplomas, as well as to enhance the illusion that the diplomas were form legitimate educational institutions (e.g., via securing fictitious accreditation either within the United States or abroad."
"Regarding financial accounts located in the United States, Axact appears to have set up three primary shell companies in the United States, by the name of Mivvel Inc., Tullow Inc., and Tinko Inc., as well as various tertiary shell companies, to include, but not limited to Blitzace Inc. The Directors of said entities have been identified to include both Pakistani-based Axact executives, as well as United States-based Individuals."
"Viqas Atiq, the Chief Operating Officer of Axact, Hold 49% of the shares of Mivvel Inc. Shoaib Ahmed, and the owner/Prsident of Axact, holds 49% of the shares of Tullow and Tinko. With respect to Mivvel Inc., the remaining 51% of the shares belong to Ali Gaffar Vyajkora, date of birth 23 March 1971, 109 Juliett Fowler Street, # B-303, Dallas, Texas."
"With respect to Tinko and Tullow, the majority share holders are Zubair Syed (Tullow), date of birth 27 October 1962, Uzma Shaheen (Tinko), date of birth 7 December 1969. Ongoing investigation revealed Zubair Syed (Tullow) and Uzma Shaheen (Tinko) are married, and reside at 1512 Midwest Club Parkway, Oak brook, Illinois 60523." During the investigation of subject case, a complaint of a Saudi Student/Victim, namely Hussain Al-Ahmed, has also been received from Saudi Consulate, Islamabad, through Ministry of Foreign affairs, Islamabad. The relevant part of the said complainant is reproduced as under:
“I have been scammed by Brookdell University which is fake online university using online study and it is included with Axact Company a Pakistani Company, actually they have taken from me total amount 15739 USD for scholarship of bachelor degree but now they disappear and their website is not working as well as they are not answering for my calls and not getting back to me. In the beginning they told me to pay only 199 $ then 3500 $ then 1000 $ then 5040 $ then 4000 $ after that 2000 $. So please guide me to the solution to refund my money from them then I will be thankful for you. They were every time asking about payment nothing else. I am Saudi and staying in KSA. They have given me the bogus bachelor degree which is attached here with bogus accreditation bodies certificates after passing one interview and they told me to completer my study with them to get all documents attested and legalized and finally they have disappeared before I complete my study with them.”
The Saudi national/ student/ victim has also enclosed with his complaint the copies of fake/ fraudulent degrees he has received, details of payments he made and email correspondence with University, which actually made with the sale agent of M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd.
During the course of investigation the statements U/S 161 Cr.PC of the prosecution witnesses were recorded who fully supported the prosecution version in their statements. One of the prosecution witnesses namely Abdul Rauf Qureshi, the proprietor of Adman Printing and Designing, who was assigned the work of printing the blank certificates, degrees, transcripts, certificates, envelopes and brochures etc of Universities, Schools and accreditation bodies/ organization while recording his statements also stated that he is printing such material for M/s Axact on the request of Mr. Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, who made him to believe that M/s axact is providing back end support to such universities/ schools, accreditation bodies and councils. Mr. Abdul Rauf also produced the incriminating material which was seized under proper seizure memo. Some of incriminating material i.e. 5 blank certificates with golden seal along with 6 metal emboss seals and file blocks were sent to office of Director Technical FIA, Headquarters, Islamabad for the technical analysis of the same and to offer their expert opinion whether the blank certificates having golden sealed embossed on the certificates are matching with embossing metal seal.
In response to above letter office of Director, Technical, FIA HQ Islamabad having technically analyzed the incriminating material, forwarded the expert opinion of Mr. Niaz Akbar, Examiner of questioned documents, FIA, Headquarter, Islamabad, who confirmed that the metal seals are matching with golden seals affixed on the said certificates through his expert opinion vide his letter No. 224/TW/FIA/ dated 22.06.2015. The experts opinion is reproduced as under:-
The examination of the documents in the above mentioned has revealed the following facts: The golden embossed seal marked as A on the blank certificate of Accreditation of Middle Ease Accreditation council, Is identical with metal emboss seal of Middle East Accreditation Council Accredited University marked as numerical 9.The golden embossed seal marked as B on 02 blank certificates of Global Commission for distance learning Education, is identical with metal emboss seal of Global commission for distance Learning Education marked as numerical 7.The golden embossed seal marked as C on 02 blank certificates of Higher Learning Commission for Online Education, is identical with metal emboss seal of Higher Learning Commission for online Education marked as numerical 5.The golden embossed seal marked as D on 02 blank certificates of Neil Wilson University, is identical with metal emboss seal of Neil Wilson University marked as Numerical 10.The golden embossed seal marked as E on 02 blank certificates of western Valley Central University, is identical with metal emboss seal of WEVAC marked as numerical 6.The foil blocks marked as 1 to 9, 11, 13, 14 and 15 may be used for pasting golden seals on Global Commission for distance Learning Education marked as B. The foil blocks marked as 10 and 12 may be used for pasting golden seals on Neil Wilson University marked as D. The foil blocks marked as 17 and 18 may be used for pasting golden seals on Western Valley Central University marked as E. During the course of investigation the forensically extracted documents from the M/s Axact Pvt. Ltd revealed that the outreach Global Ltd. CyberKnot Learning Inc, Mivvel Inc, Tullow PTD.LTD and TINKO INC were operated and owned by the accused persons as discussed in detail in a Chart at Page No. 32, 33 and 34. As the extracted documents bore the signatures with names of accused persons, so in order to obtain the technical opinion on the signatures of accused persons on said documents, specimen signatures of accused Viqas Atiq and accused Ali Abdul Ghaffar Viyajkora were obtained before the Judicial Magistrate, South, Karachi on the orders of Additional District & Sessions-V, South, Karachi in the Jail Premises.
As regards the specimen signatures of accused Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh, when the orders of learned Additional District & Sessions-V, South, along with orders of Judicial Magistrate South, Karachi were served upon the Jail authorities for the purpose, accused Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh got himself admitted in orthopaedics department of Jinnah Hospital on the same day. Afterwards on the verbal orders of Honorable Additional District & Sessions-V, South, authorities of Jinnah Hospital were sent a letter to let this Agency know of the health condition of accused Shoaib Ahed Sheikh. The hospital authorities in response to the letter of FIA intimated that as per his health condition he can sign and give statement. Afterwards on the orders of Honorable Additional District & Sessions-V, South, undersigned along with Judicial Magistrate South, Karachi proceeded to Jinnah hospital and met with medical officer on duty, who called the accused, but accused refused to give his specimen signature despite the learned Judicial Magistrate introduced himself and also showed him the orders of learned Additional District & Sessions Judge-V, South, Karachi. Later, the learned Judicial Magistrate issued his report in this connection. The same is also enclosed with this charge sheet.
However, the question signatures of accused as on the documents forensically extracted from the hard disk drives of computer systems of Viqas Atiq, COO M/s axact and Umair Hamid along with his routine signatures on the documents i.e account opening forms and S.S Cards as received from the banks were also sent to Director, Technical FIA, Headquarters, Islamabad for expert opinion on the same.
The specimen signatures of the accused Viqas Atiq and accused Ali Abdul Ghaffar Viyajkora were taken before the learned Judicial Magistrate South, Karachi and they were sent, along with the Routine Signatures that were obtained from their banking documents, to the office of Director, Technical, FIA, HQ, Islamabad in order to obtain technical/expert opinion for the verification of the Question Signatures of both the accused. As and when the expert opinion in respect of the signatures of the accused persons is received from the Director Technical the same will be made part of this final charge sheet by submitting a separate report before this honourable court.
During the course of investigation, the cogent evidence collected in the shape of forensic analysis as well as statements recorded and other documentary evidence came on record, it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that accused (1) Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, CEO/ Chairman, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd and C.E.O M/s axact FZ LLC, Dubai, UAE, (2) Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh, Director, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (3) Viqas Atiq, Chief Operating Officer (COO), M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (4) Zeeshan Ahmed, President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (5) Zeeshan Anwer, Executive Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (6) Muhamad Sabir, Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (7) absconding accused Farhan Kamal, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP), M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (8) Muhammad Rizwan s/o Zainul Abdin, Associate Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (9) Imran Ahmed Khan s/o Saeed Ahmed Khan, Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (10) Atif Hussain s/o Kamran Hussain, Software Architect, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (11) Adnan Saboor s/o Ghulam Ali, Associate Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (12) Ali Abdul Ghaffar Vyajkora s/o Abdul Ghaffar, Head Human Resources Department, M/s Axcat Pvt. Ltd., (13) Muhammad Adnan s/o Amir Ali, Assistant Vice President , M/s Axact Pvt. Ltd. r/o (14) Murad Akhtar s/o Akhtar Sadaruddin, Associate Architect, M/s Axact Private Limted. (15) Vivian Christopher Campos s/o Alex Campos, Sales Professional, International Sales, M/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi. (16) Fahad Ansari s/o Hamid Ali Ansari, AVP, International Sales, Axact Private Limited. (17) absconding accused Uzma Shaheen w/o Syed Muhammad Zubair. (18) absconding accused, Haris Siddiqui, Senior Vice President, Business Unit axact and (19) absconding accused Zubair.M.Syed in connivance and common criminal intention with each other and with others are involved in the offences of impersonation; cheating; fraud; blackmailing; extortion; preparation of fake, fraudulent, fictitious degrees/ certifications/ diplomas/ other documents of false, fabricated and fictitious universities/ colleges/ schools/ accreditation bodies etc. Furthermore, the accused persons are also involved in illegal act of illegal access, tampering, modification and generation of the computerized systems for the purpose of impersonation. The foreign jurisdictions have also been co-operating with the FIA as evidenced by the letters from the Legal Attaché of USA Embassy Islamabad pertaining to fake/ fictitious Universities the front/ shell companies and merchant/ bank accounts of accused persons, as discussed above, which further substantiates the facts that the ongoing investigation pertaining to subject scam may take more time before reaching to its conclusion, given the forensic reports and other material being still prepared/collected from the enormous amount of digital and other data involved in the case. Moreover, foreign students/ victims are also approaching through their Embassies/ Consulates in Pakistan and relevant record from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is also awaited. It may also be mentioned that the SBP has also issued letters to the accused company for providing details of the Software/ names of software that the accused company, its CEO and other accused are claiming to have been exporting from the year 2007 to May, 2015. The details of the software exported by the accused, however, is yet to be provided by the accused company/CEO and others. After the receipt of the details of the exports, if any, the same will also be made part of this Charge Sheet through a separate report, as and when received/prepared.
Thus, this Charge Sheet is submitted u/s 173 of Cr.P.C. against all the accused persons namely (1) Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, CEO/ Chairman, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (2) accused Ayesha Shoaib Shaikh, Director, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (3) Viqas Atiq, Chief Operating Officer (COO), M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (4) Muhammad Zeeshan, President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (5) Zeeshan Anwer, Executive Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (6) Muhamad Sabir, Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (7) absconding accused Farhan Kamal, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP), M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (8) Muhammad Rizwan Ahmed s/o Zainul Abdin, Associate Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (9) Imran Ahmed Khan s/o Saeed Ahmed Khan, Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (10) Atif Hussain s/o Kamran Hussain, Software Architect, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (11) Adnan Saboor s/o Ghulam Ali, Associate Vice President, M/s axact (Pvt) Ltd (12) Ali Abdul Ghaffar Vyajkora s/o Abdul Ghaffar, Head Human Resources Department, M/s Axcat Pvt. Ltd., (13) Muhammad Adnan s/o Amir Ali, Assistant Vice President , M/s Axact Pvt. Ltd. r/o (14) Murad Akhtar s/o Akhtar Sadaruddin, Associate Architect, M/s Axact Private Limted. (15) Vivian Christopher Campos s/o Alex Campos, Sales Professional, international Sales, m/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi. (16) Fahad Ali Ansari s/o Hamid Ali Ansari, AVP, International Sales, Axact Private Limited. (17) absconding accused Uzma Shaheen w/o Syed Muhammad Zubair. (18) absconding accused Haris Siddiqui Senior Vice President, Business Unit and (19) absconding accused Zubair.M.Syed under sections 182, 201, 383, 409, 418, 419, 420, 466, 467, 468, 471, 472, 473, 474, 476, 477-A, 109, 34 PPC r/w section 36 & 37 of Electronic Ordinance, 2002 and r/w 512 Cr.P.C against absconding accused persons with the prayer to commence trials of the case against them.
A separate complaint under section 21(2)(a) of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, 2010 shall be submitted, against the accused persons, after completing all legal formalities of the AML Act, 2010.
The prayer is made in the interest of the justice.
(ZAKIR HUSSAIN) (SAEED AHMED MEMON) Assistant Director (Legal) Assistant Director/ I.O FIA, CCC, Karachi FIA, CCC, Karachi
CASE FIR NO. 07/2015 OF FIA, CCC, KARACHI (Property (including weapons) found, with particulars of where, when & by whom found and whether forwarded to magistrate/special judge whose name to be given). As per Column No. 4
(SAEED AHMED MEMON) ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/I.O FIA CCC, KARACHI
LIST OF ACCUSED PERSONS (IN CUSTODY) CASE FIR NO. 07/2015 OF FIA CCC, KARACHI.
1 Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh s/o Bashir Ahmed Shaikh (CNIC#42301-2480273-9) Director & CEO of M/s axact (Pvt) Limited R/o House No. 26/II, 18th Street, Khayaban-e-Tanzeem, DHA, Karachi CNIC 42301-2480273-9. In Judicial Custody
8 Imran Ahmed Khan s/o Saeed Ahmed Khan, Vice President, M/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi -do-
9 Muhammad Rizwan s/o Zainul Abdin, Associate Vice President, M/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi -do-
10 Ali Abdul Ghaffar Vyajkora s/o Abdul Ghaffar B-15, Hassan Centre, Block-16, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi. CNIC No. 422010-5829988-7, Head Human Resources Department, M/s Axcat Pvt. Ltd. -do-
11 Muhammad Adnan s/o Amir Ali, Assistant Vice President , M/s Axact Pvt. Ltd. r/o D-04, Al Aman Colony, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block-14, Karachi. CNIC No. 42101-7095474-5 -do-
12 Murad Akhtar s/o Akhtar Sadaruddin, Associate Architect, M/s Axact Private Limted. r/o Flat No. H-33, Saleemabad Colony, Block-14, Federal B. Area, Karachi CNIC no. 42201-8476776-1 -do-
13 Vivian Christopher Campos s/o Alex Campos, Sales Professional, international Sales, m/s Axact Private Limited, Karachi. r/o Flat No. 60, Mariyam Apartment, Cantt. Station, Karachi. NICOP no. 423011-001622-9 -do-
14 Fahad Ali Ansari s/o Hamid Ali Ansari, AVP, International Sales, Axact Private Limited. r/o Plot No. 9-C, 4th Commercial Street, Khayaban-e-Bukhari and others -do-
(SAEED AHMED MEMON) ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FIA CCC, Karachi
LIST OF WITNESSES
Case FIR No. 07/2015 of FIA CCC, Karachi
(Statements u/s 161 Cr.P.C. of PWs have already been submitted before this Hon’ble Court along with Interim Charge Sheet dated 13.06.2015)
ADEEL ARSHAD S/O KHAWAHA ARSHAD AIJAZ R/O B-205, 2ND FLOOR PEARL RESIDING BLOCK-14 GULSHAN-E-IQBAL KARACHI CNIC NO. 42000-6700073-5 IN CASE FIR NO. 07/2015 OF FIA CCC KARACHI. MUHAMMAD IMRAN S/O MUHAMMAD MANSOOR, MANAGER (FINANCE), M/S AXACT PRIVATE LIMITED, KARACHI. R/O R-104, SECTOR 5/C-3, NORTH KARACHI. CNIC NO. 42101-1633840-9. FURTHER RAHIM S/O SADARUDDIN, ASSISTANT DEPARTMENT HEAD, INTERNAL AUDIT, M/S AXACT PRIVATE LIMITED, KARACHI. R/O FLAT NO. G-4, OHAD RESIDENCY, GARDENT-EAST, KARACHI. CNIC NO. 42201-9153784-7. ABDUL GHAFFAR IS WORKING AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR (FORENSICS) IN CYBER CRIMES CIRCLE (NR3C) FIA, LAHORE. SAEED AHMED MEMON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FIA CCC, KARACHI.
(Saeed Ahmed Memon) Assistant Director, Fia Ccc, Karachi
