OSLO/LONDON – Norwegian prosecutors have dismissed the criminal case against Norwegian-Pakistani businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor, closing a fraud investigation that followed him across three countries and 16 years.
The Eastern Norway Public Prosecutor’s Office issued the dismissal on 18th August 2026, citing the state of the evidence, and ordered Oslo Police to clear any outstanding wanted notices connected to the case. Zahoor’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, confirmed all charges against his client had been dropped.
The case centred on an alleged fraud involving Nordea bank dating to 2010. Zahoor denied involvement from the outset and had argued for years that the evidence never supported prosecution. Oslo Police themselves proposed closing the case in December 2021 — a recommendation that took nearly five years to reach dismissal. An earlier version of the investigation was shut in 2013 for insufficient evidence, then reopened in 2015. INTERPOL deleted its wanted notice for Zahoor in 2019.
Zahoor said in a statement issued through Elden that he was relieved the case had been quashed by the same authority that built it. “I am thankful to the prosecutor who saw through the facts and dismissed the case, which was based on untruths,” he said.
