Ponzi scam: Indian Muslims duped in their quest for Islamic investments
Photo: A cashier counts Indian rupee currency notes inside a bank in Mumbai December 6, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Fatima Farooqi (not her real name) mortgaged her house in Mumbai to borrow and invest 500,000 Indian rupees ($7,180) into a scheme run by Heera Gold last year. She was thrilled at the prospect of paying her daughter’s college fees with the 15,000 rupees monthly return she was promised from this ‘halal’ investment.
Today, the promoter of the Ponzi scheme, Nowhera Shaikh, is in jail pending trial after dozens of cases of cheating and fraud were filed against her for payment default. And Fatima has little hope of getting her money back.
A homemaker and mother of two, Fatima said she first invested 200,000 rupees in 2016 and was receiving 6,600 rupees every month into her account as a profit for almost a year.
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Syed Ameen Kader, White Paper Media