On 5 October, the Middle East Monitor reported that a British citizen of Pakistani origin was questioned by the British authorities in 1998 due to a suspected relationship with members of a network involved in fraud operations and VAT evasion. His name appeared in leaked documents obtained under the Pandora Project, with links to 4 offshore companies and he has been accused of being an agent of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and of founding a cell for collecting funds, and that he had received specialised training to execute a VAT fraud scheme. It is said that the plan was to use global financial institutions to convert fraudulently obtained Euros to US Dollars, and eventually send the money to Afghanistan, Pakistan and UAE to support attacks in Afghanistan. The funds collected through this fraud, from the mid-2000s to 2010, are estimated at more than €1.15 billion. Included in attempts to bring him to justice, in 2017, an Italian court convicted him of conspiring to steal the VAT and demanded that the UAE extradite him, but the UAE refused.
