KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested eight people including the CEO of Digitonics Lab software house in the case of suspicious foreign transactions.
CEO Digitonics Lab Pvt. Ltd Burhan Mirza was among eight employees arrested on charges of local and international fraud, embezzlement and deception by FIA Cyber Crime Circle. Their assets have been seized and bank accounts have been frozen while a case has been registered against them.
The firm allegedly hacked personal data and submitted the amounts through credit cards in their personal bank accounts. It also used to convince customers to invest $100 promising a return and then blackmailed them through another unregistered company.
A case has been registered by FIA officials and the arrests were made subsequently. The firm’s owner Junaid Mansoor and two other suspects are absconding and have not been arrested.
The FIR, filed on behalf of the State at the Cyber Crime Reporting Centre, accuses the company of forgery, money laundering, cheating, and a number of other crimes. The FIR states the crimes were committed between 2015 and 2021.
The inquiry has been registered based on a source report on international scammers operating in Pakistan that the FIA received from the Islamabad Cyber Crime Wing. The report identified scams operating throughout the country, including harassment, fraudulent activities, identity impersonation, cheating, phishing, and extortion.
The scammers directed customers to file trademarks and deposit foreign exchange to register the trademarks, according to the FIR, which noted that the company charged a minimum of $100 to initiate the process.
The scammers also impersonate government officials and warn customers to get their trademarks registered or else they will face a lawsuit and have their company shut down, it said.
FIA has said that suspicious material has been found on Burhan Mirza’s laptop which is being investigated. The suspects are expected to be presented in court to secure their physical remand.
On Tuesday, the FIA raided the software house located in the Business Avenue building on Shahrah-e-Faisal and seized the company’s records, data, and computers.
The FIA Cyber Crime Circle had sealed the entry and exit points of the buildings during the raid and were present at the office for over five hours. More than 40 FIA officials raided the office and investigated and recorded the statements of eight employees while another was detained for questioning.
It is being reported that the raid was conducted because of the company’s suspicious foreign transactions and money laundering. FIA said action will be taken on merit and it will not come under any kind of pressure while cybercrime officials had been preparing against the software company for a month.
