Billion dollar corruption exposed in solar panel imports involving Dubai Islamic Bank

ISLAMABAD: A Senate subcommittee on Finance raised serious concerns over a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal in the import of solar panels.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance’s subcommittee, led by Senator Mohsin Aziz, revealed massive over-invoicing in the import of solar panels involving transactions worth billions.

The subcommittee ordered a complete audit of all solar panel imports since 2018.

The panel said that 11 companies were involved in the Rs160 billion solar panel transactions, with Star Business Solution and Moonlight from Peshawar having the major involvement.

The subcommittee questioned how certain companies managed to exceed the annual transaction limit by Rs20 million, with some firms allegedly processing transactions worth Rs2 billion to Rs5 billion in a single year.

It was revealed that the said companies, used accounts opened in branches of Dubai Islamic Bank and Askari Bank in Lahore to carry out transactions to import solar panels.

Bright Star’s account was opened on August 3, 2018, by Rab Nawaz and his wife, Zainab Nawaz, while Moonlight’s account was initiated by Zahid Akbar. Bright Star began conducting business just three days after its account was opened.

“Bright Star alone made over Rs2.7 billion in transactions in 2018 and continued making payments, including Rs5 billion in 2019, Rs1.5 billion in 2020, and Rs2.5 billion in 2022,” the Senate committee quoted officials as saying.

Similarly, Moonlight reported Rs7.9bn in turnover, with a significant amount in cash.

The Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and the FBR raised concerns about the nature of these transactions.

FBR officials confirmed that around Rs46bn in suspicious transactions were flagged, many involving cash payments, which raised serious concerns of potential money laundering.

FMU representatives explained that receiving a CTR does not automatically indicate suspicion, but if a transaction appears dubious, a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) is filed and forwarded to enforcement agencies for further action.

The Senate body cal­led for a thorough investigation into the actions of the two companies and the two banks involved.