ISLAMABAD: Officials in the National Accountability Bureau find the Modaraba (Islamic mode of investment) scam puzzling, especially the amount involved.
Initially, they estimated the amount was no more than Rs550 million. But after some time, the investigators realised the amount must have been substantially higher.
Some now go to the extent of putting the amount in billions.
The number of people affected by the scam is 10,000, mostly students of madressahs and members of their families, widows and retired government employees. They were cheated reportedly by some religious scholars and more than 40 prayer leaders.
“Earlier, we though that it was only a Rs550m scandal, but now we believe that more than Rs30bn is involved in it,” Director General of NAB in Rawalpindi Subh-i-Sadiq said at a press conference on Friday.
He said seven companies owned by religious scholars were found to be involved in the scam. Five scholars — Mufti Ahsan and Qazi Obaid of Faizi Group of Industries, Shabir Ahmed Usmani of Alwasay Group, Mufti Ghulam Rasool Ayubi of Meezban Group and Mufti Ibrahim and Mufti Osama of a joint venture Elixir and Mega Group — have been arrested.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) informed NAB that seven companies were involved in the illegal business. None of them was registered with the government and their accounts were not verified by any certified auditor either.
NAB started the probe in January after some people lodged complaints that Mufti Ahsan was running a parallel banking system and had conned a large number of people out of their savings. Over 820 complaints were filed in which Rs550m was involved. He was arrested by NAB.
Mufti Ahsan confessed to the crime and agreed to pay the amount to the affected people. Under the agreement, he was to pay Rs400m in cash and the rest by selling his property. NAB recovered the cash and took his property into possession. He was later released on a court order.
The NAB DG denied allegations that some bureau officials had struck a deal as a result of which Mufti Ahsan had been released. He said the bureau had published advertisements for three months so that more affected people could contact it. When no more complaint was lodged the accused was asked to voluntarily return the money.
Zahir Shah, the bureau’s DG of operations, said initially people were reluctant to file complaints because religious scholars and Imams of mosques had told them that NAB would deduct 25 per cent of their money at the time of recovery.
He claimed that NAB never deducted from the recovered amount of affected people.
Mr Sadiq said Mufti Ahsan, who was arrested a second time, had deposited the looted money in firms in Thailand and Hong Kong. He said some 40 prayer leaders were involved in the scam. They facilitated investment of innocent people in fake investment schemes.