U.S. Think Tank Attacked by Pakistan Corruption

No longer content with corrupt activities just aimed against fellow Pakistanis, attention is now being turned to US interests in Pakistan. While the flow of donor funds to Pakistan is set to increase, there is a current drought of available funds leaking into the Pakistan economy and rather than wait for the new pipelines to flow, Pakistanis are directly attacking US contractors in Pakistan with fraudulent claims to extort payments.

The most recent moves have come from Fincon, a company linked to Canada and controlled by Shahid Yusuf, a Canadian-Pakistani, based in Peshawar, with murky connections to the recent murder of a US national in that city who was allegedly friends of Yusuf. Peshawar is a town where everything is for sale, from guns to grenade launchers; even life and death. In such an environment, corruption flourishes and is simply a way of doing business. And what a business Shahid Yusuf does.

Yusuf has held many Asian Development Bank contracts over the last few years but these have dried up as Yusuf and Fincon have developed the unenviable reputation of failing to deliver while charging at the most exorbitant rates. The ADB is currently dealing with complaints against Yusuf from former staff and his access to future work is limited.

As the funds dried up, Yusuf has become desparate. He approached the Urban Institute, a Washington DC think-tank, that is implementing a USAID project in Pakistan and tried to sell them a nonexistent financial management software for implementation. Despite meeting with Urban Institute Director, Chas Cadwell, the husband of the current Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in Washington, Fincon was unable to get Urban Instiute to take up his offer. Subsequently, the Urban Institute developed its own software for a few thousand dollars compared to the millions demanded by Shahid Yusuf for something that did not exist.

Seeing his chances floating away, Yusuf demanded that the Urban Institute pay him $5 million alleging that they had copied his non-existent software. Yusuf admitted to at least three witnesses that he knew that the software had not been copied by the Urban Institute but because he had corrupt control of the Pakistan courts, he could force Urban Institute to pay him the money or he would shut its operations in Pakistan. He made a fundamental misjudgement.

The Urban Institute would not play. Not only would they never bow to corrupt pressure but they also simply did not have any money to pay him even if they wanted to so, and they certainly did not.

Yusuf's action in the Islamabad District Court is on-going and every attempt by Yusuf to halt the Urban Institute in its tracks have failed. He thought that he had managed to obtain a temporary injunction on the Urban Institute but as his lawyers were not up to the task, the Urban Institute were able to simply continue implementing the software they had developed. So Yusuf went looking for Achilles heels and he thought he had found one.

In 2001 an Australian current affairs program Four Corners ran a sensationalist story on Kevin Curnow, who headed the Urban Institute's project in Pakistan. The story was still on the web and Yusuf contacted the journalist who presented the story to arrange for a republication of the material so that he could try to force a settlement with the Urban Institute.

The journalist, Sally Neighbour, has been the subject of criticism in respect of he reporting standards and had been severely embarrassed by the original 2001 story that she ran on Kevin Curnow. Neighbour is also well known for her stong left-wing and anti-US views which have dominated her reporting. The story was a series of serious allegations in respect of which the police could find no substance and there were no charges and no police action of any sort. This caused substantial professional embarrassment for Neighbour as it cast a poor light on her story, for which she was given an award by a committee over which she had major influence. The embarrassment translated into a personal vendetta by Neighbour against Kevin Curnow.

Neighbour ran a follow-up piece in the Australian media in compliance with Yusuf's plans and Yusuf immediately tried to use it to force the Urban Institute to settle. Bizarrely, Neighbour alleged that the only reason that Kevin Curnow had not been charged after her 2001 story was that the Australian police do not investigate crimes valued at less that $5 million. This is bizarre for two reasons: firstly, a $5 million minimum crime limit is unbelievable, as is the fact that anyone could seriously suggest it. More twisted though, $5 million that Sally Neighbour refers to is the same amount that Yusuf was demanding from the Urban Institute. Is this where Sally Neighbour got her magic number? The question must be asked what is the arrangement between Neighbour and Yusuf with respect to this magic $5 million and how far back this arrangement goes?

The case in Pakistan continues but the questions go unanswered as to Sally Neighbour's links to the Peshawar underworld.