The five men had set up Big Board, a fake fraudulent investment company, asking people to invest their money for a promised return of 15%. PHOTO: FILE
A court in Gilgit sentenced five men accused of scamming the public of millions of rupees to eight years imprisonment on Monday.
Accountability Court additional judge Justice (retd) Malik Muhammad Safdar also handed down a fine of Rs400 million to each of the accused – Abbas Haider Naqvi, Muhammad Arif Khan, Mohammad Sadiq Khan, Syed Haider Farosh Naqvi and Ahmed Rahman.
The five men had set up Big Board, a fake fraudulent investment company, asking people to invest their money for a promised return of 15%. In 2008, a special prosecutor filed a reference with the then Regional Accountability Court against the fraud.
On Monday, the court ordered the National Accountability Bureau to seize and sell the property of the accused to compensate the aggrieved parties. The convicts were sent to jail after the verdict was issued.
The ‘Big Board Scam’ is the biggest financial fraud in the history of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) where at least Rs180 million – invested by public – were misappropriated. The company had set up 11 offices in G-B.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2013.
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