Pakistan in search of 'dead' woman over $1.5 million US insurance fraud

A statue stands atop Grand Central Station in front of the MetLife building in New York on Oct. 8, 2008. (REUTERS/File)

• After her reported death, Kharbey had traveled to Hong Kong, Thailand, Iran, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates
• Federal Investigation Agency inquiry was initiated upon a complaint from the US consulate general in Karachi

KARACHI: Pakistani investigators are searching for a woman who faked her death certificate to receive $1.53 million from two American life insurance policies, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official said on Saturday.
Investigation reports show that a son and daughter of Pakistani citizen Seema Saleem Kharbey applied for a $1 million American General Life Insurance policy in December 2008 and for another one from MetLife in March 2009. After submitting their mother's fake death certificates in 2011, the siblings received from the insurers nearly $1.53 million and transferred the funds to a Karachi branch of JS Bank.
"We are conducting raids to arrest the woman after our enquiry found her committed fraud in compliance with her children, health and local government officials," Stephen, the FIA inspector in Karachi, told Arab News.
According to a report lodged with FIA's Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Karachi on Dec. 1, 2020, an inquiry was initiated upon a complaint by Scott J. Jess, assistant regional security officer-investigator of the US consulate general in Karachi.
In his letter, Jess said that Kharbey had contacted the mission in person in April 2019 although she was declared dead in June 2011. She also told US consulate officials that she had traveled internationally on her Pakistani passport after the date of her reported death.
"Kharbey did not cooperate with investigators upon being confronted with the fraudulent Pakistani death certificate other than stating that she was living in Karachi at the residences of her brother and sister, but she refused to provide her siblings' names and addresses,” Jess's letter reads.
After her reported death, Kharbey had reportedly traveled to Hong Kong, Thailand, Iran, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates between August 2011 and August 2013.
A spokesperson of the US consulate declined comment, but the FIA officer confirmed that the matter was taken up by the agency upon the mission's request.
The FIA has registered a case against Kharbey’s son and daughter, a doctor at a general hospital in Karachi's Lyari area, and a former secretary of the Union Council.