Big guns of Ponzi scheme to be held

FIA officials say they will arrest company chairman, director and finance director

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court dismissed the pre-arrest applications of the chairman and two directors of MNM Company who were detained for allegedly robbing locals of their hard-earned money.

Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem issued the orders on Tuesday.

According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), they will arrest MNM Company Chairman Ahmad Sial, Director Muhammad Faisal and Finance Director Tehfoor Anwar.

On October 4, a team of the FIA raided the MNM premises and seized Rs110,000, three laptops, 130 MNM payment receipts, payment receipt books, two MNM stamps and four CPUs from the possession of accused Nadeem Ahmad Bandhesha, Khalid Javed, Zahid Hussain and Imdaad Hussain.



The accused said that Sial and his wife Iram Shahzadi were running an illegal business and receiving huge amounts of money from people on the pretext of selling motorcycless at a lower cost. During the investigations, they failed to produce legal justification for running the business. After initial investigation, the FIA seized Rs1.355 million from their account in a private bank and registered an FIR.

On October 5, it was revealed during investigation that the MNM company had violated the SECP memorandum of associations and cheated the public at large by collecting Rs25,500 in advance on the pretext of either giving them either a motorcycle or cash worth Rs36,000 within 45 days. However, it all turned out to be a ponzi scheme.

The FIA again recovered Rs2.953 million, eight laptops, four CPUs, six MNM user proforma files, 56 MNM payment invoices, 22 bank deposit receipts, rubber stamps and 15 MNM rejoinder files.

In further action, they also seized Rs115,000, an SUV, a saloon, eight MNM payment invoices files and nine MNM rejoinder files from a suspect named Liaquat Ali.

The FIA arrested Basharat Ali, the brother of Liaquat Ali, as his account was being used for the deposit of commissions.

FIA analysed the recovered record/payment invoices and found out that a sum of Rs1.214 billion had been received by the accused persons/company from the public.

Investigators said that they had issued letters to all the commercial banks to trace and seize the accounts related to the accused persons/company. Similarly, letters have also been written to the State Bank of Pakistan to depute an officer to analyse the accounts related to the company to determine money laundering.

They have also been issued to the deputy commissioners Faisalabad/Toba Tek Singh and Jhang.



On October 19, FIA seized more than 15 different bank accounts of MNM Company and associates with a balance of Rs20 million through notices u/s 5(5) FIA Act, 1974. The FIA also issued notices to DHA Islamabad, Bahria Town Lahore and Karachi, LDA Lahore, FDA Faisalabad, MDA Multan and Punjab Land Revenue Authority Lahore to trace allotments of property/plots for seizure and further necessary action.

They also wrote letters to the FBR chief commissioner and for income tax return details. FIA officials were investigating the case further.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2017.