NAB approval: Two more references stacked up against scam suspects

Thirteen individuals stand accused of cheating public out of roughly Rs3 billion.

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has approved two more references against 13 people accused of involvement in modaraba scams worth billions of rupees.

The references have been approved by Lt-Col (retd) Shahzad Anwar Bhatti, director general of the NAB in the Rawalpindi region chapter, who exercised powers delegated to him by the bureau chairman under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999.

The first approved reference charges Mezban Trading Company CEO Ghulam Rasool Ayubi, Muhammad Imran, Hussain Ahmed and Muhammad Khalid with practicing corruption and cheating the public at large. According to the reference, NAB Rawalpindi received 2,800 complaints from the general public, accusing the four men of involvement in scams worth Rs2.95 billion.

Using the name of Mezban Stores, the accused promised 30% to 50% return on investments, but after paying profits to investors for a few months, they defaulted on the remaining payments. The accused neither paid the monthly profit they owed, nor returned the capital investment they received, the reference added.

Investigation into Mezban Trading Company revealed that the amount initially paid to investors as profit was taken out of new investments in order to gain people’s trust, sources said.

The second reference approved by the head of NAB (Rawalpindi), charges nine people –Shabbir Ahmed, Sajjad Ahmed, Tariq Mehmood, Raja Babar Zaib Malik Faisal Sultan,QamarShehzad,Saifur Rehman,Muhammad Adil and Muhammad Fayaz – with cheating the public out of hard earned money to the tune of over Rs49 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2014.