Eliminating Terror Financing from Banks

摘要

The majority of the corruption cases the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) tackled when it first came into being in Oct 1999 pertained to misdemeanor in the nationalized financial institutions. About 80% of the cases involved loans and/or advances on flimsy grounds and against very little (or mostly fake) collateral. NAB's first major successes therefore was catching financial sector crooks and recovering large amounts which previously were considered as lost in the balance sheet as "bad debt", those guilty were brought to swift and speedy justice. Bringing in the "plea bargain" concept allowed those found guilty of banking scams opportunity to return the money they had looted in return for not being incarcerated, over time this became somewhat of a farce. Having looted the banks wholesale they were allowed to go free while returning only a part of the money they had pocketed. This looted money was used as "investment" in business and real estate. Some of them are now tycoons, even going into the media business as a "self-protection" mechanism. Spouting their "great patriotism", crooked NAB officials involved in the "plea bargaining" scam lined their pockets making deals allowing the guilty to walk free. Has NAB succeeded in holding their own crooks accountable?