After making millions, fraud suspect netted

ISLAMABAD:

He emptied as many as 20 people’s bank accounts before landing behind bars. Akhtar Hussain, suspected for tampering with cheques to withdraw money from people’s bank accounts, was arrested by Commercial Banking Circle of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday.

The investigation officials said they were tracking his movements and arrested him from his hideout in Islamabad. They had received a complaint from the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).

During initial investigations, the suspect admitted to tampering with cheques and using them at different banks including the SCB to withdraw huge sums of money, said an FIA official.

“The bank had identified tampering on the last cheque he presented to them for withdrawal of money,” added the official.

The suspect said that he would make appeals for donations of small amounts to wealthy businessmen. He used to go to doctors and industrialists and asked them to get membership of his charity organisation for only Rs250. He insisted on bank cheques, not cash. The organisation, in reality, was just a website operated from the United Kingdom.

“The suspect was a former bank employee. He worked at different branches of various banks in many cities and knew many people there,” said the investigation officer.

He would replace the Rs250 amount from the cheque with bigger amounts with the help of ink remover. “He used sources inside the banks to get the current bank balance of the person,” said the investigation officer.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2012.