Al Karimi Cooperative Housing Society Fraud

A friend of mine was going through a severe financial crisis - the details of which he never revealed. One day however, he broke down and shared his sad story with me.

My friend belongs to Ismaili community and he invested all his life savings into a community property project Al Karimi which lately discovered a biggest fraud with all the Ismaili community in Karachi, Pakistan. All society (Al Karimi) members handed over a large sum of their life savings amount into the project blindly.

I will definitely share those names specially the main leader who started this fraud scheme and ripped-off each and every member of this society from this scheme, He is none other than Saleem Lalani (Ex-State Bank employee) who gathered few more community leaders to gain community trust and launch this scam.

Following are the project details:

Company: Al Karimi Multipurpose Cooperative Society

Chairman:  Saleem Lalani (Ex-State bank employee)

Project Name: Al Karim Bungalows

Project Start Date: 22/08/2006

Main Leadership / Partners:  Abdul Nabi Reimoo, Nizar Noorallah Panjwani, Wazir Ali Panjwani, Madad Ali 

Total Fraud in PKR : 336,474,339.00

Let me share the following newspaper cutting which published in 2011 as the affected members of the society went to court for legal justice but nothing happened.

Daily Ummat - 21 April 2011 in which legal proceedings initiated against illegal purchase of 20 acres of land by the Al Karimi Cooperative Housing Society

The above is a news clip from Daily Ummat of 21 April in which charges were leveled against all members of the managing committee of the housing society for illegal purchase of land. Names of the members mentioned include Chairman Salim Lalani, Vice Chairman Abdul Nabi, Honorary Secretary Vazir Panjwani, Member Finance Nizar Panjwani as mentioned in the audit report.

One week later, details of the fraud were revealed after investigation as shown in the below clips:

Daily Ummat, 28 April 2011

Daily Ummat, 28 April 2011 (Continued)

Daily Ummat, 28 April 2011 (Continued)

There are more than hundred people who have invested their lifetime savings in the project. Some of them have even sold their houses to invest in this project.

It's now been over 9 years but the culprit are enjoying their lavish life and no one is taking responsibility to resolve this issue. The reconciliation and arbitration board within the community has absolved themselves of such community frauds whereas this is the very reason for their existence. It is suspected that the fraudsters have connections deep enough within the community's local leadership.

Source/Credit: https://communityfrauds.wordpress.com/