The sheer scale of the fake degree scam that involves Karachi-based IT firm Axact has staggered Pakistani LEAs and forced them to seek help from US, British, and other international agencies to step up as well as consolidate the ongoing investigation into the case.
“In two days, the government will write to America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol to assist Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in its probe into the case,” Minister for Interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, told a press conference earlier today.
The interior minister was also critical of stories cooked up out of professional rivalry.
“Do not fish up stories from here and there. Get them straight from the horse’s mouth,” he quipped.
Pakistani investigators Tuesday carried out raids on a firm accused of running a global fake degree empire, officials said, confiscating computers and holding employees for questioning as the scandal deepened.
The firm Axact was accused by the New York Times of running a network of hundreds of websites for phoney universities complete with paid actors for promotional videos, as part of an elaborate scheme that generated tens of millions of dollars annually.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officers swooped on the Karachi headquarters of the company, seizing equipment and records and expelling employees from the building, a member of the raiding party told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile the company’s Rawalpindi office has been sealed and employees were being questioned at the site, an official said.
The agency had earlier said that two employees had been arrested, but later clarified they were being quizzed and had not been charged with a crime.
The move came shortly after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the agency to probe “if the said company is involved in any such illegal work which can tarnish the good image of the country in the world”.
The report by the New York Times, which quoted former employees and analysed more than 370 websites of fake universities, accreditation bodies and other purported institutions, sparked a wave of criticism on social media even as the company denied all wrongdoing.
