Hidden History of the Coup Against Imran Khan

Behind Closed Doors: A Film About Corruption in High Places and Those Who Enable It

Directed by Michael Oswald and Murtaza Mehdi (2023)

Film Review

In exposing the corrupt Third World officials caught up in Britain’s international money laundering schemes exposed the Pandora Papers,[1] this fascinating documentary provides the missing context behind the 2022 Ango/American coup against Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.

It begins by revealing that 1/2 trillion dollars annually flows from the developing word to the West every year via offshore banking. The film attributes the success of this scheme largely to the failure of British banks and government officials to trace money “politically exposed persons”[2] invest in UK property and banks.

Specific examples  include

the Kenyata family in Kenya, where two-thirds of the population live on less than $3.20 a day and 70% are malnourished.the Aliyev family in Azerbaijan, where British Petroleum made a secret deal with Aliyev after instigating the 1992 bringing him to power. After privatizing the country’s Soviet era oil/gas industry, banks and hotels, the Aliyevs invested their profits in exclusive London properties, which they subsequently sold to the British royal family.[3] Azerbaijani officials who try to anti-corruption laws routinely end up dead or in jail.Congolese activists campaigning to have the UK return the fortune dictator Mobutu Seso Seko and his families invested in the UK and its offshore banks.Angolan activists campaigning to have the riches former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his family offshored.Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s diligent efforts to repatriate the fortune his predecessor Nawar Sharif and his family offshored during three terms as prime minister in the 1990s. In 2018, Nawar Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison (following release of the Pandora Papers [4]), a move playing an important role in Khan’s election in August 2018.

As the filmmakers make clear, London is the destination of choice of funds illegally offshored by “politically exposed persons”

in part  because London (a far larger financial center than New York) is the banking capitol of the world,in part because the UK has no money laundering laws,in part because they deliberately seek out corrupt third world leaders to increase their political and economic influence in the developing world,in part because the majority of offshore money laundering occurs in British territories (eg British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Channel Islands), andin part because they allow third world leaders to own British property anonymously.

The UK passed the UK Economic Crime Act in 2022 to identify Russian oligarchs who were offshoring their wealth in Britain. Under the Act, all foreign entities owning companies and property in the UK are required to disclose their owners. Unfortunately the law isn’t being enforced. Immediately following his sentencing, Nawar Shariff went the UK for medical treatment, and the British Crown has refused to extradite him to serve his sentence.

The film blames Imran Khan’s persistent demands for Britain to return the funds the Shariff family had offshored, along with his refusal to host CIA sites on Pakistani soil, for the April 2022 call by Pakistan’s US ambassador to remove him from power. According to Khan, who is interviewed in the film, million dollar bribes offered to his government’s coalition partners played a major role in the no-confidence vote removing him from office.

Shabaz Shariff, Nawar Shariff’s brother and leader of Pakistan’s main opposition party, was about to be sentenced for corruption when he replaced Khan as prime minister. At the time of their appointment, sixty percent of Shabazz Shaif’s cabinet were on bail in ongoing corruption proceedings.

Since the latter became prime minister, the multi-governmental Financial Action Task Force has lifted Pakistan’s gray (ie corrupt status), and Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau has declared him “innocent” of his money laundering conviction. This followed the death of two NAB investigators of unexplained heart attacks in May and June o2022, and the near fatal heart attack of a third. It also followed a retroactive law Shariff passed to restrict the power of the NAB in investigating white collar crime and to prosecute police who failed to present reliable evidence of corruption at the time of arrest.

[1] The Pandora Papers were 11.9 million leaked documents that the International Consortium of Investigation (ICIJ) published in October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders.

[2] Defined as “a person entrusted with an important public function.*

[3] Prince Andrew is the most influential pro-Azerbaijan lobbyist in the world.

[4] The Pandora Papers revealed Nawar Shariff had laundered tens of millions of illicit funds (bribes etc.) through the family’s sugar company,