Well, I think you have not read the report and pasted the link here. Shaukat Aziz was never banker of Zardari or any corrupt in City Bank. Actually, Shaukat Aziz was never involved with Private Banking branch of City Bank to deal with Zardari or any individual having account in City Bank. I think that you should accuse a person not on perception or own speculation but only if you have knowledge of it. Please read carefully the report you yourself referred:
From ‘Chowk’ site (you posted): Although Citibank, under Shaukat Aziz’s leadership (from May 1997 to October 1999) and his successors’ has done much to tighten controls, it was beset by numerous scandals during the 1990s.
**Well, you can read the actual American Senate report from their own site (from where ‘Chock’ got their abstract): **From the site of American Senate with report, you will find how Shaukat Aziz as head of City Bank cleaned City bank from corrupt accounts. Here is abstract from American Senate report on corrupts using American banks to launder their corrupt money and how Shaukat Aziz cleaned City Bank from their corrupt accounts (bank investigated was City Bank): Abstract (related to Shaukat Aziz role in City Bank and his work in cleaning City Bank from corrupt accounts):
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/110999_report.htm
**Senior Bank Management Oversight. **Poor audit results, ongoing regulatory reviews, and the Salinas and Zardari scandals elevated the private bank’s problems to the attention of Citibank’s senior management. The Chairman of the Audit Committee of Citibank’s Board of Directors, Robert Shapiro, an outside director who is also chief executive officer of Monsanto, told the Subcommittee staff that, during his tenure as committee chairman from 1996 until 1998, the private bank became one of a handful of issues he focused on. He said that he was troubled not only by the repeated low audit scores, but also by the private bank’s repeated failure to meet deadlines for corrective action. He said that he personally talked to Citicorp’s CEO John Reed about the need to take action. He said that Mr. Reed responded by taking a personal interest in addressing the private bank problems.
Among other actions, in May 1997, Mr. Reed replaced the head of the private bank. He selected Shaukat Aziz, a longtime Citibank executive not previously associated with the private bank. He told the Subcommittee staff that he charged Mr. Aziz with improving what Mr. Reed called the private bank’s “lousy audits.” He indicated that he also asked Mr. Aziz to review the private bank’s handling of public figures accounts, and to initiate the “fundamental review” of the private bank requested by bank regulators. In a November 1997 letter to the Board of Directors, Mr. Reed wrote the following:
“I spent a day being interviewed by the Department of Justice on the Salinas affair. As a legal issue, I continue to think that we are on very solid ground. However, I am more than ever convinced that we have to rethink and reposition the Private Banking business. … Much of our practice that used to make good sense is now a liability. We live in a world where we have to worry about ‘how someone made his/her money’ which did not used to be an issue. Much that we had done to keep Private Banking private becomes ‘wrong’ in the current environment. The business itself is very highly attractive and there is no reason why we cannot pursue it in a sound way but it will take an adjustment.” [CS7463]
That adjustment apparently has not been a smooth one and is still underway. In July 1998, Mr. Aziz presented a new private bank strategy to the Citibank Audit Committee, recommending among other measures that the bank move away from “secrecy” and instead emphasize producing good investment returns for its clients. He also recommended taking steps to change the private bank’s culture of lax internal controls. These controls were a sensitive matter throughout 1998, not only because of the Carlos Gomez fraud in January, but also because, in May 1998, ten days after Citibank had agreed to purchase Banca Confia in Mexico, that Mexican bank was indicted by the United States Justice Department for engaging in money laundering.
After receiving approval of the Audit Committee and senior bank management of the proposed 1998 strategy, Mr. Aziz began making personnel changes at the private bank, including firing a longtime senior manager in Switzerland, Phillipe Holderbeke, and altering the private bank’s leadership team. On the issue of public figure accounts, in late 1998 and early 1999, over the objection of some longterm private bank employees, he ordered a number of longstanding public figure accounts to be closed.
In October 1999, after accepting an appointment as finance minister of Pakistan, his home country, Mr. Aziz left the private bank. He was replaced by Todd Thomson, a former Travelers Group executive.