Financial scam: Ponzi scheme robs AJK people of Rs5b

Ex-PM blames incumbent chief executive for allowing company to do business in Kashmir.

ISLAMABAD:

In what is being dubbed the biggest financial scam in the history of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), thousands of people have allegedly been swindled of billions of rupees by an online investment company.

“A phony investment company, Click and Click, had set up its offices in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, with the approval of the regional government,” claimed PPP central leader Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry. “The company collected around Rs5 billion from local investors and disappeared,” he added.

Barrister Sultan, who is also a former AJK premier, alleged that with the incumbent prime minister’s approval the company set up its offices and solicited investments from the general public in clear violation of AJK High Court and AJK Supreme Court instructions.

Barrister Sultan shared with the media letters of approval from the AJK Prime Minister’s House. In their verdict, both superior courts had ordered the authorities to stop such online companies from carrying out their businesses, he added.

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan and the AJK Industries Department in their separate letters had already warned the administration about illegal activity of dubious online firms but no action was taken to save the people from the looters, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2013.