Ponzi scheme: NAB arrests two for involvement in Rs2.5b scam

The accused set up a business and lured 2,500 people into investing money.

PESHAWAR: A team of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) conducted raids across the province and arrested the accused in a Rs2.5 billion Ponzi scheme under the guise of Islamic investment.

The accused had set up a business called Life Medicine Company (LMC) in Doaba, Hangu and took Rs2.5 billion from 2,500 people by promising them lucrative profits and interest-free investment. Amjad Iqbal and Abdus Samad, both from Doaba, were arrested while NAB is still searching for the primary culprits, Jamshid Khan, Syed Muhammad Dawood Shah and Abdus Sattar.



Their company is neither registered with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) nor with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). NAB also advised the public to remain vigilant and refrain from buying into fake ‘lucrative offers’ by investing their money in companies who promise unrealistic high profits in a short span of time.



The case is similar to the one unraveled by NAB in Rawalpindi where a fraudulent company lured a large number of people to ‘invest.’ Religious scholars had issued a decree in the company’s favour and declared its operations as ‘purely Islamic and interest-free.’

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2013.