Memogate witness Ijaz was embroiled in fraud case: report

Mansoor Ijaz obtained loans for his business and was unable to repay,says media report.

Mansoor Ijaz,who single-handedly rocked Pakistan’s politics by his claims in the memo scandal,was accused by a European Bank of running a one-man business and obtaining loans that he was unable to repay on time,recently surfaced documents show,according to a media report.

The case that had come up in 2010 and other flip flops made by Ijaz could raise credibility issues for him in the memo scandal investigation.

Judge Charles E Ramos of the Supreme Court of the state of New York issued a judgement against Ijaz on September 25,2010 after Banca Sammarinese di Investimento (BSI) of San Marino filed a suit for the recovery of a loan obtained by him,the Daily Times quoted court documents as saying.

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Ijaz created a storm in political and diplomatic circles last year after he made public an alleged memo that sought US help to stave off a feared coup in Pakistan in the wake of killing of Osama bin Laden in May last year.

The suggestions of financial impropriety follow emergence last month of a music video in which Ijaz is featured as a commentator at a wrestling match featuring two nude women.

The Daily Times further reported that Ijaz has made contradictory claims about the memo and was unable to produce any email or BlackBerry message that directly linked any Pakistani official to the memo he drafted and sent to the US military chief in May last year.

Legal experts questioned whether these “credibility issues” would allow Ijaz to convince the Pakistani judicial commission probing the memo issue that he is telling the truth about the document’s origins when he is the sole witness and “corroborative material” in the form of BlackBerry messages and telephone logs he presented were so “heavily dependent on his personal account and explanation”,the report said.

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In its filings in the New York court,BSI of San Marino said it had opened credit lines in favour of Ijaz and his companies The Ijaz Group Inc and Aquarius — in 2007 and

2008.

Ijaz had pledged shares of his companies as collateral,which later turned out to have no value.

The case raised questions Ijaz’s “smoke and mirrors approach” to business and his using the impression of high- level political connections to obtain money while speaking of his immense wealth to develop political ties,the report said.

In fact,in 2008 Ijaz had written to the bank’s directors that as part of efforts to repay the loans,he plans to launch a new USD 50 million venture with major investment by a “large Indian family” with real estate investments around the world and close ties to Tata Motors.

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A judicial panel recently allowed Ijaz to record his testimony via a video-link from London after his repeated failures to appear before it.