Abraaj’s Naqvi denies transferring money to his personal account

dubai — Troubled private equity firm Abraaj Group’s founder Arif Naqvi has rejected

report that he was involved in bribery to sell stake in Pakistan’s K-Electric.

In a statement, Naqvi said he has not misused any funds.

“The allegations against me are entirely false. They are premised on isolated extracts from illegally obtained documents that have been taken entirely out of context. It appears that unidentified individuals are seeking to undermine the sale of KElectric, damage mine and Abraaj’s reputation. I can say unequivocally that I have never contemplated, directed, authorised or paid any bribes with respect to the K-Electric sale,” Naqvi said in a statement sent to Khaleej Times.

Abraaj, which was managing $14 billion funds, was accused of misusing $1 billion by its creditors. Founding in 2002, the private equity giant is currently undergoing a court-supervised restructuring in Cayman Island. It was reportedly raising $6 billion before its collapse.

Naqvi it currently living in the UK in a self-imposed exile.

Recently, he managed to reach an out-of-court settlement in two cases with Crescent Group’s Hamid Jafar. The first case involved a bounced cheque of Dh177 million July and the second bounced cheque case was settled for Dh800 million between the two parties.

“I confirm that I have neither misused nor misappropriated any Abraaj funds. There was nothing untoward about my requests for transfers of Abraaj Group funds to me or my family, or for my personal investments or obligations. All drawdowns — as well as any offset against outstanding monies owned to me by Abraaj — were properly recorded and accounted for,” Naqvi added.