(Bloomberg) -- Prosecutors told a London court that Arif Naqvi, the founder of buyout fund Abraaj Group, wrote down the Pakistani president’s phone number when he was arrested this month, arguing he could flee to the country rather than face U.S. fraud charges.

The phone number of Arif Alvi was one of seven numbers Naqvi scribbled out during his arrest earlier this month, the prosecutor, Rachel Kapila, said at a hearing Friday. Naqvi appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court for the latest stage in his extradition battle after his arrest this month on U.S. charges of defrauding investors.

“There is a strong concern he will flee to Pakistan” if granted bail, and he has been known to use a private jet, which may provide the means to do so, Kapila said.

The U.S. doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Pakistan, she said. If he did flee to the country, it would be "extremely difficult to get him back."

The 58-year-old is one of several Abraaj officials caught up in a U.S. probe of what was the Middle East’s biggest private equity fund. Naqvi, who was arrested in the U.K. earlier this month, is charged with inflating the value of the Dubai-based firm’s holdings and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Naqvi “is alleged to have played the leading role in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors,” she said, and if extradited and convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years.

The allegations are of a “significant, high value fraud,” the prosecutor said. “No doubt Mr. Naqvi disputes many, perhaps all” allegations against him. The hearing adjourned for a lunch break and is scheduled to resume in the afternoon, when Naqvi’s lawyers will set out their case.

Abraaj collapsed last year in the world’s biggest private-equity insolvency. Founded in 2002, it grew to become one of the world’s most influential emerging-market investors, with stakes in health care, clean energy, lending and real estate across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Turkey.

Naqvi surrendered control in 2018. Abraaj, which managed almost $14 billion, was forced into liquidation in June after a group of investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commissioned an audit to investigate the alleged mismanagement of money in its health-care fund.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kaye Wiggins in London at kwiggins4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

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