Remand of accused extended in motorcycle scam

LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of accused in a motorcycle scam worth Rs10 billion.

The court has extended the judicial remand of more than 10 accused allegedly involved in defrauding the general public by promising them the delivery of motorcycles within 45 days after making an investment of Rs25,000. The accused included Ehtesham Anwar, Hammad, Saqib, Muhammad Ali, Naeem Khalid and others.

The main accused in the case was Ahmad Sial. The accused had been working as stockists in different cities of the province. The main accused, Ahmed Sial, got registered his Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) firm with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in 2017 and started his business of import and export of spare parts, afterwards the accused in connivance with other co-accused launched a company named M/s Munafa Network Marketing (Pvt) and started receiving hefty amounts for providing motorcycles within 45 days.

Meanwhile, hundreds of offices were opened in different cities like Jhang and Bhakkar accordingly, where thousands of agents collected billions of rupees from the general public just for their own commission of Rs1,000 per motorcycle. Initially, the owners of M/s MNM distributed around 20,000 motorcycles as a confidence-building move to attract more investments.

Smelling the deceitful act, the SECP referred the case of treachery to the FIA, whereas the case was later transferred to the NAB Lahore in September 2017 keeping in view the magnitude of the embezzlement.