Sindh Police arrest fraud suspect in Karachi raid

Moinuddin, along with two others, had allegedly defrauded investors of Rs11 billion

KARACHI: The Taimuria investigation police claimed to have arrested the regional manager of a company for allegedly committing fraud worth Rs11 billion, in a raid in North Nazimabad on Saturday.

According to the police, the suspect, Moinuddin, was nominated in the case by a man named Waqas in 2017. He had been on the run since then.

Waqas had claimed that he and his brother-in-law were lured by Moinuddin to join him in selling and purchasing motorcycles, adding that they were defrauded of Rs5.4 million by the suspect. He added that Moinuddin later went into hiding.

"My brother-in-law and I helped Moinuddin collect the money from people," he stated. "The investors began to question us once Moinuddin disappeared from the scene, thus my brother-in-law and I also went into hiding."

In his statement to the police, Moinuddin claimed that he had been the regional director for an organisation called MN Company, co-owned by Ahmer Siyal and Arshad. He said that the company, which had an office at Johar Morr, had launched its operations in Karachi in 2017, adding that it had managed to accumulate Rs11 billion in the same year. He further stated that the owners had escaped with this amount.

According to the suspect, he was abducted and assaulted by investors for the stolen money. Moreover, he said, he had sold his house to repay people their share, while his children were removed from school because of the non-payment of fees. "I did not have bad intentions. If I had committed a crime, I would have escaped from Pakistan," he claimed.

Moinuddin shared that Siyal and Arshad were in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), adding that when he contacted Siyal to ask him to return the investors' money, he was told that the owners had already signed a contract with the NAB to repay the amount in the next 19 months.

"Some of his men came to Karachi to meet the fraud victims and set a date to return their money," said the apprehended man, adding that they had agreed to terms for repayment with several of the investors. He claimed that he had not been nominated in the case, but was still arrested by the police.

However, the plaintiff maintained that Moinuddin shared responsibility with Siyal and Arshad, and had just hidden his share of the looted money, which could be recovered if the police used their 'customary methods' during interrogation.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2020.