LAHORE (Staff Report) – Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has decided to look into several other accusations against Axact that include tax evasions, fake degrees, and writing paid dissertations for university students, reliable sources revealed on Tuesday.
Shoaib Shaikh, CEO of Axact, is also expected to be summoned to Islamabad to record his statement before FIA team, following the raids at company’s offices in Rawalpindi and Karachi. As many as 25 company officials were arrested during the raid that concluded to sealing the offices.
Related: FIA raids Axact’s offices, computers confiscated
The sources further added that a special interrogation has been formed at FIA in the light of charges levelled by New York Times report and the same inquiry team will probe other allegations.
The NYT report, “Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions”, alleged that the group has been selling fake degrees to their clients worldwide.
“Their websites, glossy and assured, offer online degrees in dozens of disciplines, like nursing and civil engineering. There are glowing endorsements on the CNN iReport website, enthusiastic video testimonials, and State Department authentication certificates bearing the signature of Secretary of State John Kerry.”
“Yet on closer examination, this picture shimmers like a mirage. The news reports are fabricated. The professors are paid actors. The university campuses exist only as stock photos on computer servers. The degrees have no true accreditation.”
Related: The cheap story of Bol company’s multi-million scams
GHOST CLIENTS
Axact has more than 8 million customers throughout the world. But the irony of the fact is that unlike any other multinational company, the company has avoided providing a list of its customers.
Related: Ch Nisar orders probe into NYT report on Axact’s network
TAX EVASION
The company’s CEO, Shoaib Shaikh, has also been accused of tax theft during the last years. The data available at FBR confirms that the CEO of the ‘largest IT company of Pakistan’, which plans to launch country’s largest media house in coming months, BOL, paid just 22 rupees as income tax during the year 2012-13. In a peculiar move, the tax declared by Shaikh jumped to Rs 26 in the next fiscal year, 2013-14.
Clearly too busy to pay taxes when one is running the world’s biggest IT company pic.twitter.com/NU6QdnZpxw
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) May 18, 2015
PAIDÂ ASSIGNMENTS
A British newspaper had earlier accused Axact for selling term papers, assignments and dissertations for students. These students were mostly enrolled in foreign universities, according to the report. The company runs a number of websites for the business, however, the location of the servers where this content has been hosted is not available with the sources.
