The Federal Investigation Agency on Sunday arrested Mumtaz Hasan, founder of the Hascol Petroleum Limited, as part of its investigation in the Rs54 billion worth of scam.

“The FIA Commercial Banking Circle has registered a case against 30 suspects – including former and current officers of the National Bank of Pakistan and Hascol – and one suspect has been arrested after pieces of evidence came to light in an inquiry into bank default, financial fraud and money laundering of more than Rs54 billion by the Hascol Petroleum Company,” read a statement, which is available with Aaj News, issued on Sunday.

The agency added that further raids are being carried out to arrest other suspects.

On the directives of FIA Sindh Zone Director Amir Farooqi, it read, the agency registered a case against the accused persons under the clauses 409/420/468/471/477-A/109 Pakistan Penal Code r/w 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 r/w 3/4 Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 amended in 202

The FIA said the case was registered after getting proof and pieces of evidence in the investigation in the country’s “biggest financial fraud.”

As a whole, officials from Hascol Petroleum and partner companies – including Vitol, Fossil Energy and the colluding NBP – are named in the case.

“Syed Ahmed Iqbal, Saeed Ahmed, Syed Jamal Baqir, Akbar Hasan Khan, Syed Hasan Irtaza Kazmi, Reema Athar, Muhammad Saleem Salemi, Wajahat A Baqai, Usama Ghazi, Nabeel Zahoor, Hidayat Shar, Tariq Jamali, Usman Shahid, Shamim Bukhari, Asad Saleem, Muhammad Asmar Ateeq, Syed Muhammad Akbar Zaidi, Syed Misbah Hussain, Saleem Butt, Mumtaz Hasan Khan, Muhammad Ali Ansari, Abdul Aziz Khalid, Farid Arshad Masood, Tahir Ali, Liaquat Ali, Najmul Saqib Hameed, Farooq Rehmatullah, Muhammad Ali Haroon, Aqeel Ahmed Khan, and Khurram Shehzad are named as suspects in the case,” it read.

In the initial investigation into the scam, the FIA arrested Mumtaz Hasan after a raid and further raids are being conducted to nab other suspects.

The suspects in the case include two former NBP presidents and incumbent officials, as well as the board of directors of Hascol Petroleum and partner companies.

“The investigation revealed that the suspects in connivance with each other obtained a loan worth billions of rupees from the national financial institution while the money was used for money laundering through financial fraud,” it read, claiming that all such pieces of evidence are with the agency.

Such proofs include its officials’ bank accounts, cell purchases and storage records, it added. Moreover, the FIA has “also got records of millions of dollars in overseas transactions received by the defendants in commissions and kickbacks.”

Further investigation has revealed that more than Rs540 billion worth of “fake LCs” were opened by 19 different banks with the connivance of bank staff between Hascol Petroleum and Byco Petroleum.