Anjum Dar, Moussavi met in UK, Germany but Nawaz not ‘discussed’

LONDON: One of the central characters in the current Broadsheet scandal German-Pakistani national Anjum Dar has rejected a claim as baseless that he offered US$25 million bribe to Broadsheet’s CEO Kaveh Moussavi on behalf of Nawaz Sharif in 2012, according to a detailed email trail between the two.

A month ago, Kaveh Moussavi made headlines when he claimed that Anjum Dar met him in London twice and offered him $25 million to stop investigating against Nawaz Sharif but Anjum Dar appeared on the Naya Pakistan show with Shahzad Iqbal on Geo News to answer questions about his involvement in the Broadsheet matter.

The email trail establishes also that Kaveh Moussavi actively engaged to find ways to get money from Pakistan -- through a commission and without having to go through a court trial. The email trail between Anjum Dar, Kaveh Moussavi and two other individuals establishes that Kaveh Moussavi’s Germany-based first cousin Pirouz Bagher offered Anjum Dar commission of $40 million if he could help get Broadsheet successfully negotiate $500 million from the Government of Pakistan. Kaveh Moussavi’s original claim was for nearly $500 million from Pakistan.

Anjum Dar’s lawyers in UK and Germany have contradicted the claim that Dar showed his pictures with Nawaz Sharif to Kaveh Moussavi during their UK meeting and allegedly presented himself as the nephew of Nawaz Sharif -- offering a bribe of $25 million on behalf of Nawaz Sharif. Anjum Dar has insisted that Nawaz Sharif’s name never featured in their conversations, that he never mentioned anything related to Broadsheet during his 12 minutes meeting with Nawaz Sharif in the presence of three other people.

The communication evidence shows Dar’s picture with Nawaz Sharif was not even made when Dar met Kaveh Moussavi in Germany (Hamburg Airport) on July 28, 2012 for the first meeting and for the last time in Britain (Canterbury/Oxford) on 03 August 2012.

Anjum Dar’s picture with Nawaz Sharif was made on 30th August when Dar met Sharif in Jati Umra in the presence of Rana Siddique, Joint Secretary PML-N, Lahore, and two others. On the evening of 30th August 2012, Nawaz Sharif’s photographer Zulfikar Balti emailed Dar his pictures with Nawaz Sharif and Dar forwarded the same email to Kaveh Moussavi on 3rd September 2012.

According to email records, Kaveh Moussavi and Dar exchanged five emails from 1st to 18th September 2012. Dar’s lawyers say that Anjum Dar sent his three pictures with Nawaz Sharif to Kaveh on 3rd September 2012 from Lahore but that was to tell Moussawi that he was busy in Pakistan. Dar has said that he was keen to work with Kaveh to see if his settlement could be reached with Pakistan but Kaveh didn’t show him any evidence of accounts of Pakistanis with millions of dollars deposited.

Anjum Dar, who is originally from Lahore, has been living and working in Germany for over 40 years. According to the communication evidence, Kaveh Moussavui and Anjum Dar didn’t know each other directly. In the end of 2011, Anjum Dar met Pirouz Bagher, a cousin of Moussavi, who lives in Hamburg Germany. Pirouz Bagher wanted to produce Golf gloves in Pakistan to import in the European markets and wanted Dar’s help with business contacts.

The email trail shows that Kaveh Moussavi’s first meeting with Dar took place at the Hamburg Airport. On January 23, 2012, Pirouz Bagher wrote to Anjum Dar with the subject “Potential business in Pakistan Claim”.

The email read: “Hello Mr Dar, in addition to the other points that I would like to discuss with you, I have a very interesting and acute case in front of me. One of my cousins was searching for the previous government’s assets for the Pakistani government. After a successful search, the fee amounts to approximately $500 million.

This is contractually secured. Difficulties arise when claiming the fee. In the meantime, a large international law firm has bought into the claim. The background is that my cousin and his company do not want to spend decades in court, therefore, want a deal without court. the Pakistani Government has raised from 20 Million to USD 75 Million but my cousin and his company want $100 million.

“With the rudimentary description of the situation, the following possibility arises. If your contacts with Pakistani government are sufficient, you could be involved in this case. It would be conceivable for example that 50% of everything that goes over $100 million is received as commission. I think it is conceivable that a legally-secured claim of $500 million result in an amount of around $180 million, then $40 million would be paid for the mediation.”

Anjum Dar replied to the German-Iranian national on 29 January 2012 asking to see the proof “from your side that such deal exists and want to have such paper”. Pirouz Bagher replied to Anjum Dar on 14 February 2012 inviting him to meet Kaveh Moussavi in Amsterdam but Anjum Dar replied on 15 February 2012 that he cannot travel to Holland and would prefer meeting Moussavi in Düsseldorf or Köln in Germany.

Kaveh Moussavi’s cousin Pirouz Bagher wrote to Anjum Dar on 25 June 2012 stating that Kaveh Moussavi hopes to get around $800 million from Pakistan and not $500 million as previously claimed. He claimed in an email that Pakistan is willing to give his fee of $30 million but he wants $10 million more. Anjum Dar replied that he was willing to take up this matter with someone in Pakistan if he could see some proof of assets recoveries, bank accounts and other assets as he claimed to have found.

On 27 June 2012, Pirous Bagher wrote to Anjum Dar telling him Kaveh Moussavi wanted to meet him urgently and suggested the UK's City of Oxford for the meeting and another meeting in New York to meet Kaveh’s partner. Anjum Dar replied that he would need proof of the deal between Pakistan and Moussavi before the meeting.

Kaveh Moussavi landed at the Hamburg Airport on 28 July 2012, met Dar at 13:00 hours in the presence of Pirouz Bagher and another person. At this meeting, Kaveh gave Dar the list of “Targets” provided to Broadsheet LCC by NAB and that list carried around 136 names.

Anjum Dar’s lawyer says that during the Hamburg meeting, Dar asked Moussavi for proof so he could go through the contents and then find someone in Pakistan to take a look.

According to records, Anjum Dar drove from Germany to Oxford, Kaveh Moussavi’s town, on 03 August 2012 where Kaveh gave a copy of the Broadsheet-NAB agreement (called “Assets Recovery Agreement (ARA) to Anjum Dar. In the meeting, Kaveh Moussavi claimed that he knew about several accounts of Pakistanis carrying tens of millions of dollars but, according to lawyers, showed no proofs to back up his claim, not that time or after.

On 18 September 2012, Anjum Dar and Kaveh Moussavi exchanged emails for the last time. Broadsheet had asked Dar if he had any updates or development to which Dar replied: “I am in Dubai and coming back tomorrow afternoon. I don’t understand what you and your all people want. I met you two times and you told me about the case and gave me some paper.

The important things are missing. You didn’t show me or gave me any proof against these gentlemen. I never seen anything. Where I can go and discuss with these peoples. Without any proof I cannot talk with these high-level people and without the proof I don’t want to lose my face. So please let me show your proof if you want that I can handle these.”

Kaveh Moussavi replied for the last time on 18 September 2012: “Dear Anjum, thank you for your response. Please destroy all papers that we gave you, on trust. We will not be troubling you any further.” After the silence of over eight years, names of both Kaveh and Dar exploded on the Pakistani media.