Philanthropist Arif Naqvi gets bail on £15 million surety bond

LONDON: Arif Naqvi - renowned Pakistani entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Abraaj Group - was granted conditional bail on the security of £15 million by the Westminster Magistrate’s Court despite strong objections by the United States government, which were set aside.

Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot accepted submission by the legal team of Arif Naqvi that he was not a flight risk, will not flee to Pakistan and no Pakistani official in government would or could send a private jet for Mr Naqvi so that he could flee – as suggested on three occasions on three dates by prosecutor Rachel Kapila, acting on behalf of the American government. The accusation was made to try and substantiate a claim that he was a flight risk but was rebuked by the Judge.

The judge announced that Arif Naqvi will be given conditional bail, provided that £15 million bail money is offered, opposed to the £10 million offered by Naqvi’s legal team led by Hugo Keith QC.

The judge has imposed restrictions that Naqvi will not be entitled to any travel documents, will remain at his London home throughout, will be tagged and cannot leave his premises without permission from the court. Two of his associates – senior Abraaj executives Mustafa Abdel-Wadood in Manhattan and Sev Vettivetpillai in London – are already out on bail.

While the US government didn’t oppose Wadood’s bail surety of almost £7.5 million, which was pledged in assets and not provided as cash as reported by the press, it strongly opposed the bail application of Arif Naqvi and leveled new and unsubstantiated allegations at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court using unnamed sources and repeating allegations, all of which had been leveled over a year ago for the first time.

Throughout since the Abraaj scandal broke out, Naqvi has been cooperating extensively with all parties focused on maximising creditor recoveries of the Abraaj Group, which was at its peak the largest private equity firm in emerging markets with assets under management of US $13.6 billion, known for its pioneering style of investing and helping grow companies, which resulted in billions of dollars returned to investors.

Naqvi’s bail last week was blocked by the same judge after the prosecutor said Naqvi may flee to Pakistan rather than face US fraud charges and that Naqvi wrote down the number of Pakistan’s President at the time of his arrest three weeks ago at London Heathrow Airport.

The issue of names came up again at the court on Wednesday and the prosecutor said that they were mistaken and he had written down the number of Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan at the time of his arrest.

The prosecutor told the judge that Naqvi was well connected and could flee to Pakistan where he could be protected by his “well connected” friends and that Pakistan would not extradite him to America in the “current circumstances” but the judge turned down these concerns after Hugo Keith QC asked whether the prosecution was intending to say that a friendly government would help someone abscond from the UK, which the judge understood and agreed would not happen. She concluded by deciding to grant conditional bail at the biggest ever sum offered ever for any case at this court.

The defence lawyer told the judge that the prosecution was relying on unverified and inflated information such as that Naqvi had access to funds of hundreds of millions of Pounds which he could utilize to leave Britain or escape the course of justice. He told the judge and provided evidence to the fact that Naqvi himself did not in fact have liquid cash available.

It emerged that the £10 million bail was offered by supporters of Naqvi who have offered to help the family. “This shows that Naqvi’s friends and acquaintances have high regard for him, in his character and his integrity. They are offering these vast sums because he’s a man of good character and enjoys high esteem and trust”, the defence lawyer told the judge. The judge agreed with this.

The lawyer explained that Abraaj executive Wadood – incharge of Abraaj Credit Investment Committee and the Global Head of the Private Equity side of the business – faced similar allegations as that of Naqvi and he was granted bail despite the fact that he was an Egyptian national and had no ties in the US but the same was being denied to Naqvi who has strong ties to the UK and his family resides in London permanently.

Naqvi, along with other executives of Abraaj Group, is charged with inflating the value of the Dubai-based firm’s holdings but he has strongly denied all allegations and maintains his innocence.

Countering the prosecutor, the lawyer told the court that the idea that Naqvi took money out for his personal benefit at the expense of the group was incorrect. He told the court that any monies which Naqvi had taken out were legally entitled to him through his contractual arrangements with the company, and specifically also pointed out that no monies were moved from funds to Mr Naqvi’s direct personal benefit directly from the funds – and moreover, that the US allegations were in fact wrong, incorrect and misleading.

He told the judge that towards the end of 2017 and early 2018, all funds of the Gates Foundation along with all other investors in the Healthcare fund were returned in full, and with interest – meaning that the Gates Foundation did not suffer any economic loss at all. Hugo Keith pointed out that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US accepted monies had been returned, whereas the Department of Justice (DOJ) Indictment had omitted to include this key point, showing a contradiction.

The lawyer again made a reference to a report by Deloitte in 2018 in which the accountancy firm confirmed that no criminality or misappropriation of funds took place at any stage. The US government is likely to appeal the bail decision at the London High Court.