Three years after a Lahore magistrate cleared him, Umar Farooq Zahoor has now been cleared at source
ISLAMABAD (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 21st Aug, 2026) Three years after a Lahore magistrate cleared him, Umar Farooq Zahoor has now been cleared at source.
Norway’s top prosecuting authority has dismissed the 16-year-old corruption case against the Norwegian-Pakistani businessman, citing a lack of sufficient evidence to prove corruption and wrongdoing. Legal documents show there is not enough evidence to prosecute him or to justify keeping the file open.
For the courts here, the finding is not new. In May 2023, Lahore judicial magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk cleared Zahoor in two fraud and money-laundering cases registered against him in 2020, during the PTI government, relying on an Oslo Police clearance letter and an investigation report by Pakistan‘s Federal Investigation Agency.
The FIA had informed the court that its investigation found no evidence establishing Zahoor’s involvement in fraud, money laundering or corruption. The Oslo Police letter confirmed Norwegian investigators lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him.
The Pakistani cases followed complaints by his former wife, Sophia Mirza. After a bitter divorce, Mirza alleged that Zahoor was involved in bank fraud in Norway in 2010 and a separate alleged fraud in Bern, Switzerland, in 2004.
The Norwegian case at the root of it all concerned a multi-million-kroner fraud against the bank Nordea in 2010. Zahoor was accused of being one of the alleged principal figures behind it, a charge he always denied, launching several legal challenges to clear his name. He argued the prosecution had no proof, and noted he had not been to Norway since 2005.
Norwegian authorities sought his extradition over the same case. The UAE refused to comply, citing a lack of evidence.
According to the court documents, the investigation began in 2010, and Zahoor cooperated with police through his lawyers. In 2012, Oslo Police closed the case on evidential grounds and recommended to the public prosecutor that the case be dismissed. Prosecutor Carl Graff Hartmann instead kept the file open for years and continued making statements to the media.
The matter came to a head only after Zahoor sued Hartmann himself, accusing him of defamation and of conspiring against him in collusion with the right-wing tabloid Verdens Gang. Zahoor alleged that Hartmann had repeatedly provided defamatory and false narratives to his contacts in the right-wing media to settle what he described as a personal enmity.
Norwegian authorities referred the case to the chief prosecutor. Within a week of receiving the file, the chief prosecutor decided this week to dismiss it completely.
The case has been dropped “due to the state of the evidence”, found to be “insufficient”.
The prosecuting authority has also ordered Norwegian law enforcement agencies, including the police, to “take the necessary steps regarding any still-active wanted-person alerts/notices”, withdrawing all outstanding notices and warrants, locally and internationally.
In a statement through his Norwegian lawyer, Zahoor said he was relieved the case had been quashed by the same authority that built it.
“For nearly 16 years, this case has followed my name around the world. It has followed me to banks, authorities, business partners and international meetings. But the worst thing is not what it has cost me professionally. The worst is the moments with my family that I can never get back,” he said.
“The prosecution has now established, after nearly 16 years, that there is insufficient evidence of corruption and wrongdoing against me. I maintained this position throughout, but I was targeted and witch-hunted by certain elements within the system.” He said the decision rested on the government‘s own internal prosecution inquiry, which found the case lacked merit and evidence and that continuing it was not in the public interest.
“I am finally vindicated and my innocence is established, but I have paid a huge price due to the victimisation I faced at the global level,” he said, thanking “the prosecutor who saw through the facts”.
The clearance closes a case that has made headlines for years, most recently when Zahoor was filmed with the President Trump-appointed delegation at Nur Khan Airbase, welcoming US Vice President J D Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during Pakistan‘s efforts to broker peace between the US and Iran.
He alleges VG published an article against him, with the prosecutor’s assistance, around the time of that visit — despite a Norwegian Police certificate issued on March 16, 2026 stating that he had no criminal record in Norway. In his lawsuit he alleges the paper ran a racist, Islamophobic, malicious and one-sided campaign against him for more than 16 years, in alliance with sections of the Indian media, despite Interpol having ended cases against him due to their political nature.
Zahoor is the only Pakistani so far to have been honoured twice with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz within a period of less than six months, recognition tied to his role in attracting hundreds of millions of Dollars in foreign investment. It was announced in August 2024 and conferred at the Pakistan Day investiture on March 23, 2025; he was named for another state honour in August 2025, with reports linking it to his diplomatic contributions following the May 2025 conflict. This year he was appointed Pakistan‘s Ambassador-at-Large for Economic Diplomacy.
