Quist worked with the Pakistan Supreme Court investigation team to uncover critical evidence implicating ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.
The former premier and his children became the subject of criminal proceedings. Quist gave evidence for the prosecution in the Avenfield (Mayfair properties) reference.
The kleptocratic rule of corrupt politicians in Pakistan appears to be tied up with laundering funds through a sophisticated global network which requires other players such as powerful business figures and unscrupulous professionals with expertise to utilise anonymous offshore companies to accumulate assets in the West.
The International Monetary Fund has stated that as much as 5% of the world’s gross domestic product is laundered money and only 1% of it is ever uncovered. Illicit cross-border financial flows have been estimated at $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion each year. It is estimated that the total private wealth held offshore is as much as $32 trillion and that since the 1970s elites from 139 low to middle income countries had parked as much as $9.3 trillion in offshore accounts.
An article appearing in the Washington Post on 5 January 2017 referred to a 2016 report showing that developing countries collectively had lost $16.3 trillion to elicit leakages since 1980.
