Despite being declared dead, Kharbay travelled
Pakistani authorities launched an investigation on December 5, 2020, after a woman fraudulently declared herself dead in 2011.
The woman claimed two life insurance policies worth $1.5 million (£1.1 million).
Pakistan’s Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) is looking into the case of Seema Kharbay.
The accused travelled to the US in 2008 and 2009 and took out two hefty life insurance policies in her name.
In 2011, she bribed some local government officials in Pakistan including a doctor and got a death certificate issued in her name.
The document also showed that she had been buried.
The certificate was then used by her children to claim two life insurance policy payouts worth $1.5 million.
Despite being declared dead, Kharbay travelled at least 10 times abroad from Karachi International Airport.
She allegedly assumed identities which none of the airlines detected as a fraud.
An FIA official stated: “She visited some five countries, but every time she returned home.”
The FIA has now registered criminal cases against the woman, her son and daughter and some local government officials, including a doctor.
The official added:
“The American authorities alerted us about this woman and we started an investigation into this large-scale fraud.”
Cases of Pakistani officials being bribed to aid in life insurance of foreign nationals is not a new occurrence.
In January 2020, a British court jailed a serial fraudster to five years and seven months in prison for attempting insurance fraud of £1 million.
Syed Bukhari impersonated his partner on the phone while trying to fake his own death in Pakistan and make a false insurance claim worth a total of £1 million.
He pretended to be his wife when emailing and calling the insurer, claiming that he had died from a heart attack in Karachi, Pakistan.
The insurer referred the case to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
It found Bukhari had submitted fake documents to try and substantiate his claim.
Bukhari had submitted a medical certificate of cause of death, a death registration certificate and a trust document signed by Pakistani officials.
However, a voice analysis expert compared Bukhari’s voice to the calls allegedly made by his partner.
It was determined there was strong support that the ‘unknown speaker’ was Bukhari.
The insurer also instructed an independent claims investigation company in Pakistan.
The Pakistani company discovered the cemetery named on the death certificate where Bukhari had allegedly been buried had no record in their register of it happening on the date listed.
When alleged faced with insurmountable evidence pleaded guilty in court in December 2019.
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