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The reality is that nothing
is one dimensional.

On 10th April 2019,

the aircraft I was in,
British Airways,

landed from Islamabad, Pakistan.

I'd been doing that flight
pretty much every week

for the last maybe six months.

An announcement that I'd heard
many times in aircraft before

was made on the plane, which was,
"Everybody please remain seated

"because the police
want to come on board."

I didn't give it a second thought.

As soon as I got off the plane,
on the gangway,

there was another gentleman.

This one was dressed in
a police uniform, and he said,

"Sir, I'm placing you under arrest
under an extradition warrant

"from the United States,
and you need to come with us."

Naqvi is also now waiting on
a possible extradition to the US

in order to face the charges,
which include the likes

of securities fraud, wire fraud
and conspiracy,

according to court documents.

This is a major development
in this saga

that has been ongoing for some time.

It's not about an explanation.

It's not about redemption.

It's not about justification
or even seeking sympathy.

One minute I was welcomed
by the global elite,

my opinions seemingly sought by
so many world leaders,

the next moment, here I am.

It's a very different Arif
from the Arif you folks knew.

But it is still...

..somewhere there.

Arif Naqvi had to be
an astonishingly clever man,

otherwise he couldn't remotely
have done this.

He was very ambitious,
which is what you want,

and he wanted to make money,
which is what you want.

The biggest private equity group in
the Middle East is Abraaj Capital.

Chairman and CEO, Arif Naqvi...

People were looking at Abraaj as
a success - a $14 billion success.

The pitch that Arif was making was
that he could make investors rich

and end poverty.

You're not just there to make money

but you're actually there
to achieve good.

You cannot forget where
you put $240 million.

You became suspicious
of everything and everyone.

We were starting to text each other
and call each other,

literally going,
"What the BLEEP?!"

The more money he made,
the more successful he got,

the more he contributed
towards the society.

Potential unauthorised drawings
of 300 million plus

I still find
substantially astounding.

It was...a machine

designed to defraud people.

I am crystal clear
in front of my Maker

that I have never committed an
intentional act of criminality.

I was the piano player who played
the month of January in Davos.

This was my 27th
World Economic Forum,

so I've met a lot of people.

Many prime ministers, my gosh.

There's a lot of things
going on in the daytime -

discussions, conferences.

I don't get to see any of that.

The main party was the piano bar.

My job is to make them happy,

get them drunk
and forget about life.

I didn't know who Arif was at first.

He came back every night,
and it was when he slipped

a nice big money bill into my hand
that I realised,

OK, I have to get to know this guy.

Right? It isn't every day
you get a 500 euro tip.

On my far left, Arif Naqvi,
the founder and group CEO

of Abraaj Capital in the UAE.

I've been a financial journalist
for 22 years.

Davos, which is this confluence
of capitalists and politicians

who, in public, talk about making
the world a better place,

and then in closed doors
they're often doing deals.

Arif was really in his element,

talking with other money managers
in public, on stage.

You're an enormous investor...

Because these markets have got
liquidity, they've got strength,

they're going to make up
for lost time.

Arif spoke the language of Western
finance, but also understood

the realities of countries where
people lived on very low incomes.

The vision that drove Abraaj
to become a global force

is harnessing Western-style
capitalism

to help achieve stability and better
health and equality and prosperity

in regions that are defined...

..by poverty and volatility.

The pitch that Arif was making was
that he could make investors rich

and end poverty.

This was impact investing,
and I was its flag-carrier.

He used to like to sit on
the window ledge behind me.

He just sat there drinking
his scotch, enjoying the music.

And I noticed he was wearing
a white badge,

which means you have
access to everything,

and obviously you're a CEO
or a prime minister

or somebody that can afford the -
what is it? - the $50,000 fee?

As the night progressed, he would
loosen up a bit, of course.

The next thing you know,
he's got a microphone,

singing Hotel California with me.
Yeah, I mean, he's human, too.

I turned up in Dubai with nothing.

It was a city that was
extremely good to me.

In the 2000s, between 2000 and 2008,
you put a dollar in anything,

you know tomorrow it's two dollars,
but then who makes sure that

actually it's six dollars?
So, Arif was the six dollar man.

It was the only environment
in the Middle East

where you could effectively create
a name through entrepreneurship.

I set up businesses myself.

It was innovative, it was fun,
and we were earning money.

Well, I got involved with it because
I saw a very talented deal-maker.

He was very ambitious,
which is what you want,

and he wanted to make money,
which is what you want.

He was very clever
at flattering people

and selling them a great story.

Aramex was a transaction
he had identified.

Aramex is a courier company

sometimes called the FedEx
of the Middle East.

Yes, it was a Middle Eastern
company,

but it was listed on Nasdaq.

We announced that acquisition
very late in 2001.

Post 9/11, obviously we were
diligenced to death by all parties -

an Arab company buying an Arab
company off the stock exchange.

I mean, look, private equity
was fashionable.

A private equity fund ought to
conduct itself by taking money

from investors, then deploying it

into investments,

like acquiring a stake in a company

which will be improved

to generate returns, and then

sharing these profits with investors

when the company is sold.

The weakness in private equity
is the lack of transparency.

You have to have a higher
element of trust

in the person or the organisation.

I kept a very close eye
on everything.

I was overly anxious
about his behaviour.

We had one member
of the Saudi royal family

who was a shareholder in our firm.

Now, the Saudi royal family
is a very big family,

there are thousands of members,
and then I caught him claiming

to say that we represent
the Saudi royal family,

and those sort of things
got me very nervous.

Ali and I never got on
with each other.

I found him to be a volatile keg
and a difficult person to work with.

Well, I think I pushed
for the divorce

because, at the end of the day,
it was untenable.

We separated from Ali very shortly
thereafter, and Abraaj was born.

Abraaj is towers.

So, Burj is one tower,

Abraaj is towers.

The choice of the name was smart.
It was very Arabic,

although now it's global.

Arif also liked what Abraaj meant
in Hindi or Urdu.

Now we rule.

Now it's our time to be in charge.

Those years were very,
very important years

and the deals...then the big
deals started happening.

When Abraaj sold its shares
in Aramex in 2005,

they made something like
five times their money.

That success attracted a lot of
attention to Arif and to Abraaj.

He started getting into the message,
which was do good and make money,

and that became his theme.

Karachi is one of the most
congested cities on this planet.

Around 2008, power outages
were routine.

When there is a power outage,

it means complete misery
for very ordinary people.

Life would completely come
to a grinding halt.

Karachi Electric was associated
with that darkness.

There was violence.

There were riots.

It was a very, very volatile place.

Karachi Electric, with all its
problems, was an opportunity

for Arif and his colleagues to prove
that they could bring about

a real transformation of a company

that would bring tangible, positive
benefits to customers and citizens.

Is it doable? Of course it's doable.

It was a very good deal.
People were jealous.

It was the biggest foreign
investment in Pakistan

and, over the years,
we found that Karachi Electric

actually ran far more efficiently
than the government was doing.

I met Arif off and on in these days.

The more money he made,

he made sure that people in
Pakistan benefited from it.

My mantra of doing good is not
just about giving money away.

It's about having the direct impact.

He set up this Aman Foundation

and this Aman Foundation did a lot
of charitable work in Pakistan.

They set up this ambulance service
in various parts of the country.

Over the last decade, Aman has
probably saved over a million lives.

I know that for a fact.

I've come here to Cairo
to seek a new beginning

between the United States
and Muslims around the world.

In 2009, President Obama went to
Cairo to reset the relationship

between the United States
and the Islamic world,

which had been torn apart by
the September 11th 2001 attacks.

Now, we know that military power
alone is not going to solve

the problems in Afghanistan
and Pakistan.

That's why we plan to invest
$1.5 billion

each year over the next five years.

After that speech, the US sought out
partners in the Middle East

with which a government fund
could invest.

One of the companies which
stepped forward was Abraaj.

The US Government pledged
$150 million to an Abraaj fund

to invest in Middle Eastern
companies.

Well, the biggest private equity
group in the Middle East

and North Africa today launched
a Palestine investment fund.

Here now to talk about that
and what's going on with Dubai

in the Middle East is Abraaj Capital
chairman and CEO, Arif Naqvi.

Securing funding from
the United States Government

was a big moment for Abraaj
and for Arif.

When you go through all the media
hype about Arif at the time,

it was all about
do good and make money.

How are you going to make this
more than just a nice headline?

So I think what it should be
lauded as is a new initiative

to create opportunity, because
when people trade with each other,

they forget about violence
and negativity.

The Americans saw him as someone
who could be an important partner.

These are the big players
from the US.

He did sit with these guys
in forums and meetings

and everything else,
and I think it drags you...

The more you do,
the more you want from that.

They were part of
the same movement -

this belief that investment capital
can help end poverty.

Five years ago or so, Arif Naqvi,
who was from Karachi,

bought this property,

he turned this wonderful green
behind us into a cricket ground,

and then he got in touch with all
his old muckers,

entertained them lavishly, and sent
them to play cricket

and to make fools of themselves.

I'm quite certain this year,
we've got charities involved

and things like that,
it's going to be even better.

Well, my name is Henry Blofeld
and I've spent 47 years

commentating about cricket
for the BBC.

A television producer rang me up
and he said,

"Would you consider commentating
for me at a ground near Oxford?

"There is this extraordinary
rich Pakistani called Arif Naqvi.

"He'd probably pay you
quite a lot of money."

That's gone all the way!

Goodness knows how many technicians
there were there,

and, to my astonishment,
was going to be shown nowhere,

so, I mean, this was a great
demonstration of extravagance.

Here we are, a mutual celebration.

The camera can't drink
but Farokh and I can.

And Imran Khan comes on to bowl.

So this is really the witching hour.

I've known Arif Naqvi
for almost 25 years

and I certainly consider him
a friend.

At the end of my cricketing days,
I met him

and he was one of those few
staunch cricket lovers.

Arif was very pleased.

He was enormously pleased that Imran
was dignifying his cricket ground.

That will have done Arif Naqvi's
street cred hugely good.

Arif...

Arif as a cricketer was not as good
as his business acumen.

And the boss has been run out.

Oh, dear.

He invited me because he also
invited top Pakistani businessmen.

After the match, we had a small
dinner, a fundraising dinner,

and that dinner was to raise
money for my political party.

Here were these people with huge
amounts of money, and the principal

was Arif Naqvi, who had got
more money than any of them.

When I look at my life story

and I think, with all of that
going for you, Arif,

and with, erm...

..money that I earned that was way
beyond my wildest expectations,

and I felt that there must be a
purpose to my life other than...

..generating the amounts
of money that I did.

Arif Naqvi was a very focused man.

When I started running Unilever, you
get exposed to hundreds of people

and at that time he was one of them.

He was a big advocate
for a few things

that I think we all believe in
and still do.

First and foremost, that you need to
channel more of our world's capital

to the right things -
ie, making this a better world.

This movement of people
and institutions

which was seeking to channel
investment funds in a way that

it ended poverty
as well as making a profit

came to be known as
impact investing.

I've been in the impact investing
industry all my life.

I'm doing what I love doing,

which is investing and actually
making a difference.

I worked for a London firm
named Aureos,

which invested in
the developing world.

We were a boots-on-the-ground model
and that's what many investors,

pension funds,
sovereign wealth funds,

a couple of US foundations,
loved about the Aureos model.

Abraaj bought Aureos.

Arif and his colleagues
recognised that owning Aureos

would open the doors to these
Western government funds for Abraaj.

Having international investors,
and a whole bunch of them,

makes a big difference.

Abraaj was primarily the Gulf,
Middle East, North Africa.

We were in Latin America,
we were in Sub-Saharan Africa,

we were in Asia.

So the Middle East's largest private
equity firm, Abraaj Capital,

continues to expand.

The Dubai-based company has bought
the UK specialist fund

Aureos Capital, which has around
$1.3 billion under management.

The combined entity will manage
$7.5 billion-worth of assets

and that's across 30 countries.

For Abraaj, the acquisition
of Aureos

meant that sort of
at one click of a switch,

you had a whole investor base

which could normally take years
to actually build up.

And I joined the board
of the UN Global Compact

when Arif Naqvi was on the board.

That's probably where I got
to know him a little bit better.

Did he stand out in one way
or another?

The world tends to be in monologue
between us Westerners.

He was an advocate, very much so,
for impact investing

for the emerging markets.

The sheer force of development

is what will make
these markets grow.

And it's extremely exciting
to be a part of that right now.

Arif became very adept in pitching

Abraaj as a firm who could

gather money from the richer
parts of the world

and invest in poorer parts of
the world in a way that would

make a profit
and a positive impact as well.

You cannot think of a forum that
he or his people weren't there,

or you cannot think of a prize
that wasn't awarded to them.

When I got to Dubai,
the Abraaj headquarters,

my first impression was, you
could fit all the Aureos offices

in this one office.

The whole structure around Arif was
almost like a president's office.

Some seniors, as well as
a lot of junior people,

who were very loyal to Arif.

One of these individuals
was having a haircut

and he got a call from Arif.

He actually left the hairdresser's
and went back to the office

with half a haircut.

When you're asked, "Jump,"

they asked, "How high?"

The Gates Foundation believes
that all lives have equal value.

At the Gates Foundation, I managed
the Strategic Investment Fund,

designed to partner with for-profit
companies and investment funds

around the world, with the goal of
alleviating poverty and ensuring

proper healthcare treatment
for populations around the globe.

The first time that we know Arif
met Bill Gates

was when he hosted him
at a dinner at his house.

He puts on a very grand meeting
for Bill and other luminaries.

Bill Gates.

It's... It's great.

The buzz had skyrocketed itself.

Bill Gates and Arif Naqvi agreed
to do something in healthcare.

It was a very large investment
and it was important to us.

It was probably a very proud moment
for Arif to be able to say that,

look, we've got this fund going
and it's a few years after,

you know, discussing this with Bill
Gates and so on, and we're there.

I'm from the emerging markets.

I've always invested in the emerging
markets for the last 25 years.

I'm managing director
and head of private equity funds

at British International Investment,

the UK Government's
Development Finance Institution.

The Abraaj team, probably
the investor relations team,

came to us to say, "We have
this great idea of a fund

"looking at affordable healthcare,"
and having Gates there

gave us a lot of comfort
in terms of, you know,

impact will definitely be
driving some of that agenda.

Abraaj's healthcare fund was
made up of heavyweight investors.

The Gates Foundation,
the UK Government's investment arm,

as well as the French Government
equivalent,

put in almost $200 million
between them.

In addition, the US Government's
Overseas Investment Corporation

and the World Bank's private sector
development arm committed in total

around $250 million.

All in all, when combined with
other investors, we had $1 billion

to make healthcare investments
around the world.

Once a year, there would be
a formal Investor Week,

where investors across all of
their funds would come together.

Arif had a very prominent role.

Beyond the human suffering
on the ground that affects

each and every one of us...

There was always a session
around his charity -

the Aman Foundation, and the
importance of why it's not

just about making money - that it
also needs to ultimately do good.

Whenever I saw him speak about that,
I felt he really believed that.

He was being genuine
with his audience.

The teams would get together
from all around the world.

The whole point is to mingle
and to meet each other.

You had music going on
in the evenings.

There would be pretty lively events.

The firm wasn't one of the largest
in the world, but the lifestyle

and the characters that led it
certainly were larger than life.

I remember a specific incident
when one of the teams

was talking to us about
a very aggressive business plan,

so I kept kind of drilling on that.

And eventually, you know,
it was time for a break.

We stepped out and Arif
came to me, I recall,

and he said, "You know, Clarisa,
you ask a lot of questions."

And I said, "Yes, I do.
That's part of my job."

He said, "No, but you're asking
too many questions."

You know, individuals will be
charming and convincing

and individuals will try
to be intimidating.

That doesn't work.

You can try both.

Arif tried that on me.

That didn't work.

My former colleagues had concerns
with the professionalism

of the Abraaj team and were very
interested when I met with them

in finding the nicest restaurant
in Seattle

and ordering several-hundred-dollar
bottles of wine.

That's what they were focused on.

We at Abraaj, I at Abraaj,
we were not bad people.

We were never bad people.

We wanted to change the world
and we were trying to do that.

There was one time
when I was staying in Dubai,

Blair and I were asked
to dinner by Arif Naqvi

at his house at Emirates Hills.

We had an amazing evening.

We must have been 30 to dinner
at least.

I mean, the wine, we didn't drink
Chateau Petrus,

which he produced, I think,
at many of his parties.

He wanted all the time to impress
and go one up, if he could,

on all his friends, and I think
his house in Emirates Hills

was very much a part
of his one-upmanship.

Emirates Hills is a place populated
by the billionaires of the world.

In the middle of Emirates Hills,
he built a huge mosque,

a huge complex named after
his father, Masood Naqvi.

That Islamic centre means a lot
to the local community.

You will see billionaires
rubbing shoulders with the workers

who work in these houses
of billionaires.

It was accepted that he had a yacht

and that he flew everywhere
by private jet.

Again, I mean, my inner...

I thought, "Well, there's Arif
showing that he's a very rich man."

The reality is that the finances
of Abraaj are in a dangerous state.

The firm was most definitely
spending more than it was earning.

I joined, I think,
on 26th Jan 2016.

As I went into the grinding machine,

it was quite interesting,
I must say.

One of my mandates was to control
costs, resize the organisation.

He used to tell me, "Listen,
my problem is I'm too generous.

"We have a huge set-up. Maybe we
can do with less. I don't know.

"But I need someone who, you know...
Merciless, you know?

"I'd like you to...

"And, you know, it's known that
I do what needs to be done, OK?"

We had the highest headcount
of investment staff

per dollar under management
in the world.

The firm has gone into
marketing overdrive

and the message that's being put
out publicly is one of success,

of having a great track record,

of being in partnership
with Bill Gates and the likes.

You go to World Economic Forum
meetings,

we had presence bigger than...

..you know, can I say
Goldman Sachs, for example?

You know, bigger than
global investment banks.

I believe in investing in presents,
but it was too excessive.

A very small group of people,
maybe four, five, six,

at the heart of Abraaj knew the
extent of a Abraaj's problems.

The most important one
was the book-keeper...

..who is Rafique.

Abraaj's finance department
is managed

by a man called Rafique Lakhani.

His office was filled
with paper receipts.

Rafique was a tireless employee
of Arif.

Extremely loyal.

Same for Waqar Siddique,

who is Arif's brother-in-law
and a senior executive.

To keep the firm from failing,

Rafique and Arif were
moving money around.

Two people who know the most
were Waqar and Rafique.

Rafique, under Arif's guidance,
was moving money

out of the healthcare fund
and then using that

to pay for various costs
elsewhere in Abraaj.

It was a juggling act.

So the way funds work is the fund
manager, in this case Abraaj,

will say, "We're about to make an
investment in this hospital network.

"We need $50 million
to make that investment."

The money is actually drawn down,
as it's called, from the investors

slowly over time,
little by little over time.

What was unique about the Abraaj
fund is they very quickly said,

"We need several hundred
million dollars."

There was a small drawdown
made in September of 2016,

but then in December 2016,

there was a drawdown
for almost $400 million.

So at first we thought
that was a good sign.

It was an indication that
they had done their homework

and had a large number of deals
that were ready to move quickly.

However, after just a few months,
we realised that they were

drawing down much more money

than they were actually
using to invest.

Something is wrong here.
Something makes no sense.

So when March came,

they said, "This is the update
on the overall portfolio."

And we said, "There's still some
money that hasn't been drawn.

"You should be using that
or giving it back to investors."

They said, "No, it's going to be
utilised in the very short term

"and we're actually going to be
asking for more money

"from you tomorrow
in the order of $115 million."

And we said, "Well, you've had
more than that already in cash."

Very quickly you realised that you
needed to ask many more questions

because...

..the answers weren't fully
making sense.

I was invited by Arif
to do this Art Dubai.

We were guests at the Ritz-Carlton.

I had a chauffeur with
a Mercedes 500 come to pick me up.

And Art Dubai was not far from that
famous hotel that looks like a sail.

It was a major event.

One of the biggest fixtures
of the Dubai social scene.

The whole mood was just very sombre.

Arif was very quiet.

He shook a few hands.
He didn't stay long.

And for the first time,
he did not even

come over to say hello to me.

Something big is happening.

I don't know what it is
but I didn't like it.

There was a lot happening
in the background,

which later I got to realise,
the pressure -

one, from the healthcare investors.
"Where is the cash?

"Why are you sitting on
so much cash?"

So I started emailing and calling
the fund managers repeatedly.

After several weeks of back
and forth, they said,

"Because we trust you, Andrew, and
because of our close relationship

"with the Gates Foundation,
this one time we will tell you

"where the money is -
which bank account it's in."

And they sent me a audit statement
showing that that $200 million

was sitting in
the Commercial Bank of Dubai.

That interaction got me
more and more concerned.

In September 2017,

just organising the investor
meeting for October.

You normally have the investors
by conference call.

And so, on that call, it was
a different set of people

than I had been interacting
with previously

when they told me it was in
the Commercial Bank of Dubai,

so I thought, "I'm just going to ask
again - where is the money sitting?"

The financial controller
gave an answer.

A particular bank.

"Oh, don't worry about it.
It's in Standard Bank."

I remember there was sort of silence
for a few seconds

and then, on the phone,

"That's not the information
or the bank account I got."

And all of a sudden it was like,
"What?" You know, "What's going on?"

And at that point, my head exploded.

You cannot forget where
you put $240 million.

A formal letter was sent -
Gates, on behalf of the investors

from the committee, saying,
"You have until the end of the year

"to return our capital,
to show us a bank statement."

The response was not good.

At that point, Arif reached out
to everyone

who managed the fund's boss
within their organisations.

This over-the-top explosion,
trying to get everyone fired,

that's an indication that
something is very, very wrong.

Asking for a bank statement
is not an outrageous request.

Abraaj and Arif personally appeared
to take that as a lack of trust.

And that's when I really knew
for the first time

that we likely had a case of fraud.

The Prime Minister is not
a job I aspired to,

but it's a big responsibility.

So, I took office
on August 1st 2017

and completed my constitutional term
of ten months.

Naqvi asked to meet me in relation
to the issues of K-Electric.

I felt that it was
very important to him.

A successful sale of Karachi
Electric would have brought

hundreds of millions of dollars.

He raised emphasis on the fact
that this was critical

for Abraaj and him.

He was bringing in
Shanghai Electric,

which was the premier power utility
in the world.

It was something that I felt,
as the Prime Minister,

was important for Pakistan,
so I was trying to facilitate

the transaction to take place.

In fact, I asked my
military secretary

to allow him full access
to me and my office.

It was the single largest
Chinese investment into Pakistan,

so there is a geopolitical
situation.

For a huge city's electricity and
power to go into the Chinese hands,

it's not what it was like
by the Americans.

And you always find out
about these issues

about a quarter of a century later,
when the documents are declassified.

A whole host of issues.
We resolved many of them,

but we could not finalise
that transaction.

Perhaps Abraaj,
with the extra money,

would have been in
a better situation.

We can only speculate on that.

In September 2017,
Arif travelled to New York.

He gives a very big speech
about impact investing

at a conference
which is timed to coincide

with the UN General Assembly,

so he's in town with
the great and the good.

World leaders, CEOs, billionaires.

You cannot create a great company

unless you start with
a good company.

And a good company is one that
stands for what society stands for.

He was speaking at a time

when something seriously wrong
was happening at Abraaj.

All of us are looking
to make a difference,

hopefully in the lives
of anywhere upwards of

200 to 300 million people.

Thank you very much.

This is not the way to end
global poverty,

by telling investors one thing
and citizens one thing

and then doing something else.

The foundation started receiving
whistle-blower emails

from an email, WB Abraaj at Gmail,
or whatever it was,

which stood for
Whistle-blower Abraaj...

..basically saying,
you're on the right track,

you're figuring things out.

You and the other investors,
keep digging.

I was told by Dubai HQ that any
more interaction with investors

is to be dealt with
by a small group of people,

of which I'm not one of them.

And at that point, I went to the
management of the Gates Foundation

and said, "We have a major problem.
We need to dig into it."

Abraaj sent us yet another statement
for one day

showing that the $200 million was
sitting in the account on that day,

December 7th, or whatever it was,
2017.

You became suspicious
of everything and everyone.

We were suspecting that
what they were doing is,

when they needed to show
that money was there,

they would transfer money in for one
day, print out a bank statement,

and then transfer it out
to use it for other purposes.

At the end of December 2017,
the limited partners

of the healthcare fund
received their monies back.

In January, they said, "We've
already given you your money."

But the trust had been broken
from our side.

We're going to hire forensic
accountants who are going to

look at every record of the money
coming in and out.

By that point, we had no certainty
of where that money had been.

I woke up mid-January,

checked my emails as I did
every single morning,

I had one potentially interesting
email from an anonymous address -

WB Abraaj.
So I responded to that.

I said, "Hello. Thank you for
sharing this information with me.

"Can you please tell me who you are
and why you've shared this with me?"

Will was a colleague of mine at
the Wall Street Journal at the time.

He came over to me one day and told
me that he'd received this email.

I'd often wondered where Abraaj

got the money to fund the
conspicuous events and lifestyle

that its senior executives
seemed to lead.

But my main feeling initially
was not,

oh, this must be true
or this must be false.

My main priority at that time is
to find out - is it true or not?

So they said, for instance,
that Abraaj had asked investors

for $200 million,
which hadn't been spent

and had been used to pay salaries
instead.

If this were true, I mean,
this would have been Abraaj

committing a kind of cardinal sin
of fund management.

So the money in private equity
is supposed to be managed

in a very disciplined way.

If you raise a healthcare fund,
you can't, you know,

go and throw a party with that money
or pay someone's salary or bonus.

I mean, this is where trust
is won or lost in finance.

So we started to gather
pieces of information.

Off-the-record comments.

Documents followed.

We kept calling people,
calling them back,

calling Abraaj.

How am I ever going to confirm
without getting bank statements

and investor reports, which
are very difficult to get

because they're confidential?

While we're doing the reporting,

trying to verify the information
in the anonymous email,

Arif is in Davos.

I knew that someone was briefing
against us in the press,

and that was a coordinated exercise,
but I had no idea who or what.

Arif had arranged a meeting
with two very senior executives

at News Corp.

He tried really hard to get them
to kill our story.

And he actually participates
in a panel discussion

with Bill Gates about global health.

Like Bill, I'm an optimist.

And I have to say that Bill
was instrumental.

That Bill is so focused.

So, you know, probably,
as Bill will testify...

Arif repeatedly tries to engage
Bill Gates in...in conversation.

It's apparent that Bill Gates
is trying quite hard

to not be engaged by Arif
in conversation.

Can I just add something slightly
provocative there, Bill,

and, I don't know, maybe
I'm being a bit simplistic,

but these gold standard regulators
and the drugs that are approved...

And even for Arif to appear...
If you're a fund manager

and you're under investigation,
to be able to get up on stage

and then lecture
one of the world's richest men

really takes a lot of, erm...

I'm not quite sure...
What, confidence maybe? Courage?

We called Abraaj for comment.

A senior executive said
it's not true

that hundreds of millions
of dollars are missing.

Abraaj is regulated
in seven jurisdictions.

It has the highest
governance standards.

At that point, we knew investors
were investigating,

so we published the article
on February 2nd 2018.

When the two infamous articles
came out,

I got a call from Waqar saying,

"Bisher, you know, there are two...

"..American, quote unquote,
publications,

"They're after us,
those bloody racist, erm...

"..newspapers.
They want to nail our successes."

And then it was like an avalanche.

After the articles came out,

we were starting to text each other
and call each other

and literally going, "What the
fuck?" I mean, "What's going on?"

It shouldn't happen in our business.

Drawing down and sitting
on the money for a while,

fine, you could live with it.

But using it for another purpose?

That's not OK.

And this is exactly what
I told Arif, I remember.

"This is called a serious violation
which needs a major change."

He goes, "What do you mean?

"Some heads have to roll,

"including, potentially, yours."

He kept on climbing down the stairs,
snooping around all of us,

trying to figure out
what's going on.

I built a wall...

..to block the staircase.

Gypsum wall. You bring gypsum...

Not me, physically.

I was constantly reaching out
to Abraaj's spokesperson

and senior executives and to Arif.

Everything that I said

was being ignored.

I sent letters and responses in
writing. I sent them verbally.

Will and I had a phone call
with Arif.

We spoke for hours.
I can't remember exactly how long.

The answers he gave to the questions
we asked were not sufficient

to make us say, "OK, well,
there's nothing to see here."

Simon and I just...

What do we...? We literally
got nothing out of that.

He just spoke in kind of
very abstract language.

We thought that if we could
meet him in person, then maybe,

you know, you'd have
a bit more engagement.

He initially was talking about,
yes, he would meet me

to talk things through,
but that meeting never happened.

I only stopped when I realised
that it didn't really matter.

It continued to be
a one-sided narrative.

As you can imagine, a lot
of the time in the office

was spent discussing
what was really going on.

So I guess I first got really
immersed in the Abraaj data

back in early 2018

on behalf of the Dubai Financial
Services Authority -

the local Dubai regulator.

The data for the regulator is still
downloading in the mailboxes

and this partner appears
in my office.

It felt like he was shouting
blue murder, saying,

"You must stop now.
Stop what you're doing now.

"Arif doesn't want anybody else
to see his information."

Then the news on Fund IV comes up.

But, again, investors are asking,

"Where is the money?
Where is the money?"

The money was not there.

So the guy says, "So what is this?"

The potential...

..unauthorised drawings
of 300 million plus

to Arif-controlled vehicles

I still find substantially
astounding.

So, I'm an auditor by training.

I remember, literally,
my jaw dropped

when the guys showed me
the download from Arif's ledger.

It's not only of the quantity
of money that was withdrawn

but also from the level of details.

From a shoeshine of 20 drams,

all the way to the transfers
to him or his companies

of tens of millions of dollars.

I have never stolen money
from anyone.

Transfers would be made to the same
vehicle controlled by Arif -

a company called
Silverline Holdings,

sometimes frequently
in the same week.

Money was being taken in and used
for these corporate expenses

and for personal gain
when it was so tight.

Right? So tight. And investor
money couldn't be given back

or investments couldn't be made.

That's fundamentally what
I still find, I guess,

the most shocking
about the Abraaj story.

There was a hole to be filled
of around $200 million.

The money that plugged the hole
for the healthcare fund

came from Air Arabia.

Arif was on the board
of that company as well.

An arrangement was struck
with Air Arabia

to place a short-term deposit
with Abraaj.

200 million was taken in.

And our audited report
said we had the money.

It was then transferred directly
from the fund bank account

back to Air Arabia.

In accounting
and auditing standards,

this is what we call typically
window-dressing, right?

You dress the window
for a certain occasion

and then you strip it down.

And I met with the auditors.

And they are KPMG,
just to make things clear.

I told them, in my book
or in anyone's book,

this is gross negligence.

It was a machine...

..designed to defraud people.

Who designed that machine?

Who do you think? I mean...

He borrowed money from
airlines, banks, people.

One of the lenders, they said,
"We want our money back."

So Arif's yacht is put up for sale.

Various properties he owns.

Creditors wanted to be repaid.

Abraaj couldn't repay them,
so that's what triggered Abraaj

having to file for
provisional liquidation.

We'd grown fast, yeah, but we
were destroyed even faster.

Anonymous emails,
negative news articles,

they forced us into
a civil liquidation process.

The only thing you have
in a business

in the world of finance
is your reputation.

When that's gone, nothing
else can really survive.

The corporate response was,
nothing to see here.

No involvement or fraud from either
Arif or a wider Abraaj perspective.

I'm spending most of my time
on this story.

What has happened here
is not public.

No-one ever found out who sent
those anonymous emails,

so we were looking for sources that
could verify what the emails said.

Simon found a new source
who might have bank statements.

And I've probably reviewed 80%,
85% of the records that exist

for thousands of hours.

Immersed in looking at the data and
finding new things what felt daily,

I was very fearful of speaking
to anybody in the media.

I remember literally trembling.

The atmosphere was very tense
because there was a lot at stake.

You had to put in
quite a lot of work

for the first half an hour
to calm me down.

I remember you consistently
asking me,

"Can I have a copy of that?
Can I have a copy of that?"

There had been lots of rumour
and hearsay,

that's one thing, but actually
seeing the evidence

is something else altogether.

I wouldn't say that I slept
properly again for...

..a good year or two.

All this information went into
the investigative feature.

That meeting that Simon had
with his source was crucial.

I think that really elevates the
story from being a badly run company

to someone taking lots of money that
you're not necessarily entitled to.

Yes, private equity can help solve
some of humanity's biggest problems.

But in the Abraaj story, I was
presented with a lot of evidence

that it wasn't solving problems,
it was making problems.

We had written the story in October
2018 and nothing had happened.

We're hearing various rumours
about Arif being in Pakistan

meeting with Imran Khan.

I was Prime Minister then.

I began to realise that there
were some problems taking place

and I, of course, heard about these
problems from Arif's point of view.

Is this how finance works?

Someone can basically just
allegedly take a lot of money

and then nothing happens to them?

We didn't know that the
US Department of Justice

was preparing to pounce.

We got the shock of our lives
when we found

that he had been arrested
at Heathrow.

I was shocked with the US response.

The charges add up to
291 years in jail.

The US Government did not
want him to be granted bail.

His initial requests were rejected

until he offered £15 million,

which at the time
was the highest bail bond

ever requested and granted.

With the benefit of hindsight,

one always has 20/20 vision, right?

Would you do some things
differently? Of course you would.

Would you have different people
around you? Of course you would.

But to be told that I masterminded
a criminal conspiracy

and enterprise, that's just wrong,

and I categorically claim my
innocence from those charges.

I think criminal intent

is the most difficult thing
to prove in a court of law.

I'm still hoping, as I say,
that Arif has a last deal in him.

He is a deal-maker
and I hope he does it.

Since lawyers want to keep the whole
truth part for a legal podium,

but it'll certainly come out
and certainly come out over time.

At this point in time,
where I find myself

is that fear is feeding the anger.

Now my anger sits with me.

My fear sits with me.

It sits on...

..my sofa, my bedroom...

My ankle bracelet
is a constant reminder

that I'm facing extradition.

We can talk about Arif Naqvi
as long as we want.

Hopefully he'll get
whatever he deserves to get.

But it wasn't him alone.

His board of directors, you know...

..where the fuck were you?

You know? Because, ultimately...

I mean, I'm surprised
they haven't been sued.

I would sue them if I'd lost money.

Without the enabling elements
that surrounded him,

it wouldn't have been possible.

I'm one of those creditors.
I almost say it like I'm proud...

I'm one of those creditors.
Isn't that cool?

The real tragedy of what happened in
Abraaj is that hundreds of millions

of dollars that would have
otherwise gone to building

healthcare facilities that could
have a huge impact in the world

were lost or wasted on lawyers
unravelling the mess of Abraaj.

When CEOs are building something,

they can be very public about
what they're going to achieve.

When things collapse,
the truth disappears

unless journalists dig it out.

Financial firms usually are just
in the business of saying

they'll make investors rich.

Abraaj was in the business of saying
it could make investors rich

and help end poverty.

But the bigger the promise, the more
responsibility they're taking on.

I know what I've done in my life

but, more importantly, I know
what I've not done in my life.

And I am crystal clear
in front of my Maker

that I have never committed an
intentional act of criminality,

nor was I aware of any actions that
could have been perceived as such.

If you permit me...
This is emotional.

Thank you.