KARACHI — The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested three senior customs officials following the discovery of a Rs16.5 million embezzlement scheme involving the auction of seized goods.
The investigation centers on the auction of confiscated vehicles and foreign merchandise at the Karachi Port. According to internal documents, the suspects systematically undervalued high-end seized assets, sold them to a pre-arranged network of bidders at a fraction of their market value, and pocketed the difference.
“This wasn’t a clerical error,” a lead investigator familiar with the case told reporters. “We found a pattern of deliberate undervaluation that bypassed the standard reserve price protocols, effectively handing public property to private interests for pennies on the dollar.”
The fraud came to light after an internal audit flagged a series of irregularities in the customs warehouse ledger. Auditors found that while the official books showed the assets were sold through transparent bidding, the actual bank deposits were significantly lower than the market appraisal for the inventory.
The arrested officials, who held mid-to-senior level supervisory roles, are currently being held at the FIA’s Karachi headquarters. Investigators are now reviewing the last two years of auction records to determine if the scheme was isolated to this single incident or part of a broader, long-standing syndicate.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has suspended the accused pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings. While the FBR has promised a full departmental inquiry, critics argue the systemic lack of digital oversight at the ports makes such fraud easy to conceal.
For now, the focus remains on tracing the money trail. The FIA is cross-referencing the bank accounts of the accused with those of the winning bidders, looking for kickbacks that would definitively link the officials to the fraudulent transactions.
If convicted, the officials face severe penalties under the Prevention of Corruption Act, including potential life imprisonment and the forfeiture of assets. The investigation is ongoing.
