Court seeks arguments in Rs420m Ponzi scheme case

A court on Friday sought arguments from the counsel representing seven alleged victims of a Rs420 million Ponzi scheme scam involving a social media influencer Sidra Humaid aka Sidra Khalil.

The additional district and sessions judge (East) heard the matter as the counsel for four affected people, including Tabinda Hamza, Ghunwa Memon and Aneela Farooq, filed power (vakalatnama) on the behalf of their clients and sought time to advance their arguments on the matter.

The judge set January 24 to hear their arguments and issued notices to three others to file their comments till the next date. Sidra had last month moved the court seeking directions for the SSP (complaint cell) and the Sharea Faisal SHO to provide her protection and lodge a case against the seven women for allegedly harassing her.

Her lawyer Kamran Alam stated that she had been accused of being involved in an online financial scam though she neither sold any product nor used any advertisement on any online platform.

She said she was collecting money from different people, pooling it and then returning it to the members on their turns. She added that she had just made an announcement on social media asking investors to not panic as their money would be returned in the coming months.

The lawyer argued that such an announcement didn’t constitute any online fraud. He said her client was ready to return the money to every investor, but many people with fake claims also materialised to claim the money from her despite the fact that she didn’t owe anything to them.

The applicant said that she submitted applications with the SSP (complaint cell) and the Sharea Faisal SHO, seeking protection and registration of a criminal intimidation case against the accused persons, but they didn’t entertain her request. The court was pleaded to direct the police officials to provide her protection.

The woman, who runs a home-based food business, had been running the BC system, but no complaints had been reported against her in the past. However, contributors started panicking when the woman on social media excused herself of paying money to around 117 contributors.

She had been holding committees (also called rotating savings and credit groups) for her friends and relatives since 2015. She had gained immense trust of a large group of women entrepreneurs running various businesses online.