LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested two car dealers of Gujranwala for their alleged involvement in a Rs3bn investment scam.

According to NAB Lahore, the suspects, Javed Muzaffar Butt and Malik Usman Riaz, owners of Toyota Gujranwala Motors, are allegedly involved in receiving investments illegally from different people, promising hefty profits.

It said both the suspects launched a showroom business in 2006 and started booking new vehicles for delivery, whereas, since 2015 the suspects collected more than Rs3bn from various investors.

The NAB Lahore said that around 700 affectees of the investment scam, including oversea Pakistanis, had so far approached it for recovery of their amounts.

It said the suspects initially started their business at Gujranwala and with the passage of time it was expanded to Gujrat, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Lahore.

Elaborating their modus operandi, the NAB said the suspects used to collect full price of the vehicles in advance, with promise of returning the amount to the investors along with a handsome profit.

The suspects will be produced before an accountability court on Tuesday (today) for physical remand.

ACE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment on Monday retrieved six kanal and 11 marla state land worth Rs320 million in Kanaan Park, Sahiwal.

The ACE said the land was being illegally used as a taxi stand which was owned by one Zahid Ali.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2019