LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing on Saturday arrested two Pakistani-Americans who have been on the run from the FBI for carrying out an armed bank robbery in Buffalo, New York, in 2016.
The two – Waqar Ghumman and Mohsin Zamir – were arrested in Lahore, and have been on the FBI’s most wanted criminals list with a combined $30,000 reward for reports leading to their capture. Their runaway driver was arrested soon after the robbery in New York and sentenced to seven years in prison but the two eluded capture and escaped to Pakistan.
Both men are US citizens born in Pakistan, according to reports in US newspapers.
“We arrested two FBI most wanted men in Lahore on Saturday,” Abdur Rab Chaudhary, Director Operations for the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, told Arab News on Sunday.
“One of them-- Waqar Ghumman-- was arrested while committing a crime at an ATM machine, while the other-- Mohsin Zamir-- was identified during investigations and arrested later,” he said.
“Since they are on the most wanted criminals list of the FBI, the FIA will take due course of law for their extradition to America subject to the agency’s contact through proper channels once our investigation procedure is complete and subject to the approval of the government,” Chaudhary said.
In a broadcast by a local American TV news network in May 2017, FBI special agent Eric Sakovics said: “Like a scene from a movie, two men were covered head to toe and entered the Evans Bank on Niagara Falls Boulevard in early January 2016, both brandishing weapons and demanding cash.”
They two men ordered bank employees to get on the ground and then “made off with a substantial amount of money.”
A high speed police chase followed but the men managed to get away when two police cars in pursuit collided into each other, he said.
Soon after the robbery, the FBI announced a substantial money reward for tips leading to their arrest and cautioned the public.
“These guys are very dangerous and they don’t care who they hurt to get what they want,” Sakovics said. “There’s a big reward up for grabs for any information leading to the arrest of Ghumman and Zamir. The FBI is offering $15,000 each. That’s $30,000 for the capture of these two men.”
The FBI also tweeted details of the two men on its official twitter account and issued a public poster with background details about the two robbers and long-time friends.
Ghumman, the poster said, was a truck driver while Zamir was an IT expert and devoted fitness enthusiast often employed through modelling agencies.
As early as 2017, the FBI suspected the two had escaped to Pakistan according to details on the issued poster.
“After committing the crime they left America and crossed into Mexico and then reached Brazil,” Chaudhry told Arab News.
“There they hired the services of a human trafficking agent and reached Pakistan secretly.”
The two men belong to Sargodha, a fast growing city nearly 200 km northwest of Lahore.
Pakistan arrests notorious New York bank robbers on the run from FBI
https://arab.news/bwesn
Pakistan arrests notorious New York bank robbers on the run from FBI
- Waqar Ghumman and Mohsin Zamir have been at large since 2016 with a $30,000 FBI bounty for their capture
- ‘FIA will take due course of law for their extradition to America,’ says official
Pakistan, global crypto exchange discuss modernizing digital payments, creating job prospects
- Pakistani officials, Binance team discuss coordination between Islamabad, local banks and global exchanges
- Pakistan has attempted to tap into growing crypto market to curb illicit transactions, improve oversight
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance officials and the team of a global cryptocurrency exchange on Friday held discussions aimed at modernizing the country’s digital payments system and building local talent pipelines to meet rising demand for blockchain and Web3 skills, the finance ministry said.
The development took place during a high-level meeting between Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal bin Saqib, domestic bank presidents and a Binance team led by Global CEO Richard Teng. The meeting was held to advance work on Pakistan’s National Digital Asset Framework, a regulatory setup to govern Pakistan’s digital assets.
Pakistan has been moving to regulate its fast-growing crypto and digital assets market by bringing virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under a formal licensing regime. Officials say the push is aimed at curbing illicit transactions, improving oversight, and encouraging innovation in blockchain-based financial services.
“Participants reviewed opportunities to modernize Pakistan’s digital payments landscape, noting that blockchain-based systems could significantly reduce costs from the country’s $38 billion annual remittance flows,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
“Discussions also emphasized building local talent pipelines to meet rising global demand for blockchain and Web3 skills, creating high-value employment prospects for Pakistani youth.”
Blockchain is a type of digital database that is shared, transparent and tamper-resistant. Instead of being stored on one computer, the data is kept on a distributed network of computers, making it very hard to alter or hack.
Web3 refers to the next generation of the Internet built using blockchain, focusing on giving users more control over their data, identity and digital assets rather than big tech companies controlling it.
Participants of the meeting also discussed sovereign debt tokenization, which is the process of converting a country’s debt such as government bonds, into digital tokens on a blockchain, the ministry said.
Aurangzeb called for close coordination between the government, domestic banks and global exchanges to modernize Pakistan’s payment landscape.
Participants of the meeting also discussed considering a “time-bound amnesty” to encourage users to move assets onto regulated platforms, stressing the need for stronger verifications and a risk-mitigation system.
Pakistan has attempted in recent months to tap into the country’s growing crypto market, crack down on money laundering and terror financing, and promote responsible innovation — a move analysts say could bring an estimated $25 billion in virtual assets into the tax net.
In September, Islamabad invited international crypto exchanges and other VASPs to apply for licenses to operate in the country, a step aimed at formalizing and regulating its fast-growing digital market.
