Rs10 bn motorcycle scam: NAB arrests 17 persons in second biggest sting operation in Punjab

LAHORE: The NAB Thursday conducted second biggest sting operation of its history and arrested 17 persons in a single day from different cities of Punjab accused in Munafa Network Marketing (MNM) motorcycle scam worth Rs10 billion.

The accused are allegedly involved in cheating and defrauding the general public by promising them the delivery of motorcycles within 45 days after making an investment of Rs 25,000. The Bureau’s different teams participated in the sting operation and conducted raids in different cities of the province.

The accused arrested by the NAB include Ehtesham Anwar, Hammad, Saqib, Muhammad Ali, Naeem Khalid, Imtiaz Ahmad, Abdul Majeed, Syed Jamal Fareed, Abid Ali, Muhammad Gulzar, Muhammad Faisal, Muhammad Hussain, Laal Khan and others. The accused will be produced before an accountability court for physical remand today (Friday).

It is pertinent to mention that it is the second biggest sting operation of the NAB. Before that, the Bureau had arrested 25 accused in single day in life insurance scam. The main accused Ahmad Sial and six others are already in NAB’s custody in the same scam. As per details, the arrested accused had been working as stockists in different cities of the province. They used to submit all money allegedly collected from innocent people by promising motorcycles on investing Rs25,000 only.

The case details reveals that the owner of MNM Motorcycle scam accused Ahmed Sial got registered his Multi-level Marketing (MLM) firm with Securities Exchange Commissions of Pakistan (SECP) in 2017 and started his business of import and export of spare parts, whereas, afterwards the accused in connivance with other co-accused launched a company named M/s Munafa Network Marketing (Pvt) company and started receiving hefty amounts in the wake of providing motorcycles delivery within 45 days.

Meanwhile, hundreds of offices were opened in different cities like Jhang, Bhakkar accordingly, where thousands of agents were collecting billions of rupees from general public just for their own commission worth Rs1000/- per motorcycle. Initially, the owners of M/s MNM distributed around 20,000 motorcycles as a confidence-building move to attract more investments.

By smelling the deceitful act, SECP referred the case of treachery to the FIA, whereas, the case was later transferred to NAB Lahore in September 2017 by keeping in view the magnitude of the embezzlement. NAB Lahore has so far arrested 25 accused including M/s MNM Motorcycles chief executive Ahmed Sial.