US Homeland Security knew in 2020 Pakistani firm illegally sold satellite images to Pak govt
Colorado is the hub of satellite and geospatial companies. The two major firms from this US state with 'eyes in the sky' that sell their images are Maxar Technologies and Albedo Space. It is important to note that Maxar had later declared BSI Pakistan as a partner. Incidentally, Albedo was founded in 2020 when the criminal case against BSI was already underway in the US courts.
Syed's connection to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the National Development Complex (NDC), the aerospace and defence agency of Pakistan's Ministry of Defence, was uncovered by the US government's Homeland Security Investigation (HIS). ThePrint has access to the complaint filed by HSI before US Magistrate Judge M David Weisman on 15 September 2020. These agencies are responsible for 'weaponizing nuclear technology through missile development and other means,' read the complaint.
New Delhi: Pakistani geospatial firm Business System International Pvt Ltd, purchased satellite images from a Colorado-based company and sold them illegally to the Pakistan government. The firm and its owner, Obaidullah Syed, also made financial dealings and exchanged emails with top officials and agencies directly involved in Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.
'BSI purchases satellite images from a Colorado-based company and then sells those images to an unspecified arm of the Pakistan government,' read a complaint filed by HSI special agent Jennifer Green.
Though Syed was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2022 for exporting goods and services from the US to the PAEC, his company became a partner with Maxar in 2023. A few months later, orders for satellite images of Pahalgam started appearing on its portal. ThePrint had exclusively reported that there was an unprecedented spike in orders for Pahalgam in February this year, just two months before the terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians.
Maxar Technologies spokesperson denied that the orders for the satellite images were placed by BSI. However, hours after ThePrint report was published, the firm was removed from Maxar's partner page.
Also read: How Maxar partner fooled US manufactures into aiding Pakistan's nuclear programme
Links with Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme
A Pakistani-American businessman from Northbrook, a suburb in Illinois, Syed had dealings not just with PAEC but with top government bodies and officials in Pakistan.
Between 2006 and 2020, he sent multiple emails to the principal scientific officer of Pakistan's Directorate of Science Division. Employees of BSI Pakistan were also found to be connected with this unnamed officer on social media accounts.
During her investigation, Jennifer Green's team found multiple email exchanges between Syed, BSI, and Pakistani officials, the HSI agent wrote in her complaint. The report cited emails confirming monetary exchange with the director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the agency that designs and tests high explosives and nuclear weapon parts, and develops solid-fuelled ballistic missiles.
It also confirmed BSI's dealings with the National Development Complex (NDC), an aerospace and defence agency of Pakistan's Ministry of Defence responsible for the country's programmes aimed at 'weaponizing nuclear technology through missile development and other means'.
'On or about April 28, 2015, a BSI-Pakistan employee emailed his colleagues a copy of a bank check received from the NDC, which special agents obtained pursuant to a warrant to search another BSI-Pakistan employee email account,' the complaint read. It went on to note that the cheque was made payable to BSI-Pakistan and signed by 'NDC Employee A in his capacity as 'Director General (C&S), National Development Complex, Islamabad'.
Maxar Technologies has yet to respond to ThePrint's queries on whether it had conducted any background check on BSI before enrolling a company with a history of federal crime as a partner. The firm has not confirmed whether BSI Pakistan has been officially removed as a partner.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)
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