Karachi: A local court in Karachi on Tuesday granted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) permission to probe 35 bank accounts linked to Axact, the IT firm accused of making millions of dollars by selling fake degrees online.
According to reports, the ongoing investigation into the company’s activities has revealed 35 foreign bank accounts in US, UAE and Singapore. Investigators have also unearthed 19 Axact-linked off-shore companies based in US, UK, UAE, Ireland, Greece, and Singapore.
The company became the centre of a criminal probe after leading Amercian newspaper New York Times published an investigative story accusing the company of being a ‘diploma mill’, running an elaborate global operation duping prospective students and selling fake degrees online.
In following raids, the investigative agency said it recovered thousands of blank diplomas and student ID cards from the company’s Karachi and Rawalpindi offices. The FIA had pressed charges against the owners of the company and took its CEO Shoaib Shaikh and several other top managers into custody.
