Monday, June 22, 2009

Charles Ponzi

Charles Ponzi

Charles Ponzi
Ponzi in 1920

Born March 3, 1882(1882-03-03)
Lugo, Italy
Died January 18, 1949 (1949-01-19) (aged 66)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Charge(s) Mail fraud (federal), larceny (state)
Penalty 5 years federal (served 3 and half years before facing state charge), 9 years state, deportation
Occupation Confidence trickster
Spouse Rose Gnecco
Parents Roberto and Maria Ponzi

Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949) was one of the greatest swindlers in American history. His aliases include Charles Ponei, Charles P. Bianchi, Carl and Carlo. The term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of any scam that pays early investors returns from the investments of later investors. He promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.[1][2] Ponzi was probably inspired by the scheme of William F. Miller, a Brooklyn bookkeeper who in 1899 used the same pyramid scheme to take in $1 million.[3]

Early life

Parts of Charles Ponzi's life are somewhat difficult to determine, due to his propensity to fabricate and embellish facts. He was born Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi in Lugo, Italy in 1882. He told the New York Times that he had come from a well-to-do family in Parma, Italy.[3] He took a job as a postal worker early on, but soon was accepted into the University of Rome La Sapienza. His friends considered the university a "four-year vacation," and he was inclined to follow them around to bars, cafés, and the opera.

[edit] Arrival in America

On November 15, 1903, he arrived in Boston aboard the S.S. Vancouver. By his own account, Ponzi had $2.50 in his pocket, having gambled away the rest of his life savings during the voyage. "I landed in this country with $2.50 in cash and $1 million in hopes, and those hopes never left me," he later told the New York Times.[3] He quickly learned English and spent the next few years doing odd jobs along the East Coast, eventually taking a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant, where he slept on the floor. He managed to work his way up to the position of waiter, but was fired for shortchanging the customers and theft.

Ponzi aka "Charles Bianchi" under arrest circa 1910

In 1907, Ponzi moved to Montreal and became an assistant teller in the newly opened Banco Zarossi, a bank started by Luigi "Louis" Zarossi to service the influx of Italian immigrants arriving in the city. Zarossi paid 6% interest on bank deposits - double the going rate at the time - and was growing rapidly as a result. He eventually rose to bank manager. However, Ponzi found out that the bank was in serious financial trouble because of bad real estate loans, and that Zarossi was funding the interest payments not through profit on investments, but by using money deposited in newly opened accounts. The bank eventually failed and Zarossi fled to Mexico with a large portion of the bank's money.

Ponzi stayed in Montreal and, for some time, lived at Zarossi's house helping the man's abandoned family, while planning to return to the United States and start over. As Ponzi was penniless, this proved to be very difficult. Eventually he walked into the offices of a former Zarossi customer and, finding no one there, wrote himself a check for $423.58 in a checkbook he found, forging the signature of a director of the company. Confronted by police who had taken note of his large expenditures just after the forged check was cashed, Ponzi held out his hands wrist up and said "I'm guilty." He ended up spending three years in a prison near Montreal. Rather than inform his mother of this development, he posted her a letter stating that he had found a job as a "special assistant" to a prison warden.

After his release in 1911 he decided to return to the United States, but got involved in a scheme to smuggle Italian illegal immigrants across the border. He was caught and spent two years in Atlanta Prison. Here he became a translator for the warden, who was intercepting letters from mobster Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Saietta. Ponzi ended up befriending Lupo. However it was another prisoner who became a true role model to Ponzi: Charles W. Morse. Morse, a wealthy Wall Street businessman and speculator, fooled doctors during medical exams, poisoning himself by eating soap shavings, toxins that left his body as quickly as the doctors left his bedside. Morse was soon released from prison. Ponzi completed his prison term the summer following Morse's release, having an additional month added to his term due to his inability to pay a $500 fine.

The Ponzi scheme

When Ponzi was released he eventually made his way back to Boston. There he met Rose Maria Gnecco, a stenographer, whom he asked to marry. Though Ponzi did not tell Gnecco about his years in jail, his mother sent Gnecco a letter telling her of Ponzi's past. Nonetheless, she married him in 1918. For the next few months, he worked at a number of businesses, including his father-in-law's grocery, before hitting upon an idea to sell advertising in a large business listing to be sent to various businesses. Ponzi was unable to sell this idea to businesses, and his company failed soon after.

A few weeks later, Ponzi received a letter in the mail from a company in Spain asking about the catalog. Inside the envelope was an International reply coupon (IRC), something which he had never seen before. He asked about it and found a weakness in the system which would, in theory, allow him to make money.

The purpose of the postal reply coupon was to allow someone in one country to send it to a correspondent in another country, who could use it to pay the postage of a reply. IRCs were priced at the cost of postage in the country of purchase, but could be exchanged for stamps to cover the cost of postage in the country where redeemed; if these values were different, there was a potential profit. Inflation after World War I had greatly decreased the cost of postage in Italy expressed in U.S. dollars, so that an IRC could be bought cheaply in Italy and exchanged for U.S. stamps of higher value, which could then be sold. Ponzi claimed that the net profit on these transactions, after expenses and exchange rates, was in excess of 400%. This was a form of arbitrage, or profiting by buying an asset at a lower price in one market and immediately selling it in a market where the price is higher, which is not illegal.

Seeing an opportunity, Ponzi quit his translator's job to set his scheme in motion. He borrowed money and sent it back to relatives in Italy with instructions to buy postal coupons and send them to him. However, when he tried to redeem them, he ran into an avalanche of red tape.

Undaunted, Ponzi went to several of his friends in Boston and promised that he would double their investment in 90 days. The great returns available from postal reply coupons, he explained to them, made such incredible profits easy. Some people invested and were paid off as promised, receiving $750 interest on initial investments of $1,250.

Soon afterward, Ponzi started his own company, the "Securities Exchange Company," to promote the scheme. He set up shop in a building on School Street. Word spread, and investments came in at an ever-increasing rate. Ponzi hired agents and paid them generous commissions for every dollar they brought in. By February 1920, Ponzi's total take was US$5,000, (approximately US$54,000 in 2008 dollars). By March, he had made $30,000 ($328,000 in 2008 terms). A frenzy was building, and Ponzi began to hire agents to take in money from all over New England and New Jersey. At that time, investors were being paid impressive rates, encouraging yet others to invest. By May 1920, he had made $420,000 ($4.59 million in 2008 terms).

He began depositing the money in the Hanover Trust Bank of Boston (a small bank on Hanover Street in the mostly Italian North End), in the hope that once his account was large enough he could impose his will on the bank or even be made its president; he did, in fact, buy a controlling interest in the bank (through himself and several friends) after depositing $3 million. By July 1920, he had made millions. People were mortgaging their homes and investing their life savings. Most did not take their profits, but reinvested.

Ponzi was bringing in cash at a fantastic rate, but the simplest financial analysis would have shown that the operation was running at a large loss. As long as money kept flowing in, existing investors could be paid with the new money. In fact, new money was the only way Ponzi had to pay off those investors, as he made no effort to generate legitimate profits.[4]

Ponzi lived luxuriously: he bought a mansion in Lexington, Massachusetts with air conditioning and a heated swimming pool, and he maintained accounts in several banks across New England besides Hanover Trust. He also brought his mother from Italy in a first-class stateroom on an ocean liner. She died soon afterward.

Suspicion

Ponzi's rapid rise naturally drew suspicion. However, when a Boston financial writer suggested there was no way Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short period of time, Ponzi sued for libel and won $500,000 in damages. As libel law in those days placed the burden of proof on the writer and the paper, this effectively neutered any serious probes into his dealings for some time.

Nonetheless, there were still signs of his eventual ruin. Joseph Daniels, a Boston furniture dealer who had given Ponzi furniture which he could not afford to pay for, sued Ponzi to cash in on the gold rush. The lawsuit was unsuccessful, but it did start people asking how Ponzi could have gone from being penniless to being a millionaire in so short a time. There was a run on the Securities Exchange Company, as some investors decided to pull out. Ponzi paid them and the run stopped. On July 24, 1920, the Boston Post printed a favorable article on Ponzi and his scheme that brought in investors faster than ever. At that time, Ponzi was making $250,000 a day.

Despite this reprieve, Post acting publisher Richard Grozier and city editor Eddie Dunn were suspicious and assigned investigative reporters to check Ponzi out. He was also under investigation by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and on the day the Post printed its article, Ponzi met with state officials. He managed to divert the officials from checking his books by offering to stop taking money during the investigation, a fortunate choice, as proper records were not being kept. Ponzi's offer temporarily calmed the suspicions of the state officials.

Collapse of the scheme

By this time, Ponzi was seeking another deal to get him out of the golden trap he had built for himself, but time was running out. On July 26, the Post started a series of articles that asked hard questions about the operation of Ponzi's money machine. The Post contacted Clarence Barron, the financial analyst who published the Barron's financial paper, to examine Ponzi's scheme. Barron observed that though Ponzi was offering fantastic returns on investments, Ponzi himself was not investing with his own company.

Barron then noted that to cover the investments made with the Securities Exchange Company, 160 million postal reply coupons would have to be in circulation. However, only about 27,000 actually were. The United States Post Office stated that postal reply coupons were not being bought in quantity at home or abroad. The gross profit margin in percent on buying and selling each IRC was colossal, but the overhead required to handle the purchase and redemption of these items, which were of extremely low cost and were sold individually, would have exceeded the gross profit.

The stories caused a panic run on the Securities Exchange Company. Ponzi paid out $2 million in three days to a wild crowd outside his office. He canvassed the crowd, passed out coffee and donuts, and cheerfully told them they had nothing to worry about. Many changed their minds and left their money with him. However, this attracted the attention of Daniel Gallagher, the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Gallagher commissioned Edwin Pride to audit the Securities Exchange Company's books--an effort made difficult by the fact his bookkeeping system consisted merely of index cards with investors' names.

In the meantime, Ponzi had hired a publicity agent, William McMasters. However, McMasters quickly became suspicious of Ponzi's endless talk of postal reply coupons, as well as the ongoing investigation against him. He later described Ponzi as a "financial idiot" who did not seem to know how to add.

The denouncement for Ponzi began in late July, when McMasters found several highly incriminating documents that indicated Ponzi was merely robbing Peter to pay Paul. He went to his former employer, the Post, with this information. The paper offered him $5,000 for his story. On August 2, 1920, McMasters wrote an article for the Post declaring Ponzi hopelessly insolvent. The article claimed that while Ponzi claimed $7 million in liquid funds, he was actually at least $2 million in debt. With interest factored in, McMasters wrote, Ponzi was as much as $4.5 million in the red. The story touched off a massive run, and Ponzi paid off in one day. He then sped up plans to build a massive conglomerate that would engage in banking and import-export operations.

However, trouble came from an unexpected quarter--Massachusetts Bank Commissioner Joseph Allen. An initial investigation into Ponzi's banking practices found nothing illegal, but Allen was afraid that if massive withdrawals exhausted Ponzi's reserves, it would bring Boston's banking system to its knees. When Allen found out a large number of Ponzi-controlled accounts had received more than $250,000 in loans, he ordered two bank examiners to keep an eye on Ponzi's accounts. On August 9, they reported that enough investors had cashed their checks on Ponzi's main account there that it was almost certainly overdrawn. Allen then ordered Hanover Trust not to pay out any more checks from Ponzi's main account. He also orchestrated an involuntary bankruptcy filing by several small Ponzi investors. The move forced Massachusetts Attorney General J. Weston Allen to release a statement that there was little to support Ponzi's claims of large-scale dealings in postal coupons. State officials then invited Ponzi note holders to come to the Massachusetts State House to furnish their names and addresses for the purpose of the investigation. On the same day, Ponzi received a preview of Pride's audit, which revealed Ponzi was at least $7 million in debt.

On August 11, it all came crashing down for Ponzi. First, the Post came out with a front-page story about his activities in Montreal 13 years earlier--including his forgery conviction and his role at Zarossi's scandal-ridden bank. That afternoon, Bank Commissioner Allen seized Hanover Trust after finding numerous irregularities in its books. Although the commissioner did not know it, this move foiled Ponzi's last-ditch plan to "borrow" funds from the bank vaults after all other efforts to obtain funds failed.

With reports that he was due to be arrested any day, Ponzi surrendered to federal authorities on August 12 and was charged with mail fraud for sending letters to his marks telling them their notes had matured.[5] He was originally released on $25,000 bail, but after the Post released the results of the audit, the bail bondsman withdrew the bail due to concerns he might be a flight risk.

The news brought down five other banks in addition to Hanover Trust. His investors were practically wiped out, receiving less than 30 cents on the dollar. The Post won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for its exposure of Ponzi's fraud.

Prison and later life

Con man Ponzi circa 1910

In two federal indictments, Ponzi was charged with 86 counts of mail fraud. At the urging of his wife, on November 1, 1920, Ponzi pleaded guilty to a single count before Judge Clarence Hale, who declared before sentencing, "Here was a man with all the duties of seeking large money. He concocted a scheme which, on his counsel's admission, did defraud men and women. It will not do to have the world understand that such a scheme as that can be carried out ... without receiving substantial punishment." He was sentenced to five years in federal prison.[6]

He was released after three and a half years and was almost immediately indicted in Massachusetts on 22 state charges of larceny.[1] This came as a surprise to Ponzi; he thought he had a deal calling for the state to drop any charges against him if he pleaded guilty to the federal charges. He sued, claiming that as a federal prisoner he could not be tried by the state. The case, Ponzi v. Fessenden, made it all the way to the Supreme Court. In a 1921 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that plea bargains on federal charges have no standing regarding state charges. It also ruled that Ponzi was not facing double jeopardy because Massachusetts was charging him with larceny while the federal government charged him with mail fraud (even though the charges implicated the same criminal operation).

In October 1922, he was tried on the first ten larceny counts. Since he was insolvent, Ponzi served as his own attorney and, being as persuasive as he had been to investors, the jury found him innocent on all charges. He was tried a second time on five of the remaining charges, and the jury deadlocked. Ponzi was found guilty at a third trial, and was sentenced to an additional seven to nine years in prison as "a common and notorious thief." [6]

After word got out that Ponzi had never obtained American citizenship (despite having lived in the United States for most of the time since 1903), federal officials initiated efforts to have him deported as an undesirable alien in 1922.[7]

Ponzi was released on bail as he appealed the state conviction. He went to the Springfield section of Jacksonville, Florida and launched the Charpon (an amalgam of his name) Land Syndicate, offering investors in September 1925 tiny tracts of land, some under water, and promising 200 percent returns in 60 days.[1] In reality, it was a scam that sold swampland in Columbia County.[8] Ponzi was indicted by a Duval County grand jury in February 1926 and charged with violating Florida trust and securities laws. A jury found him guilty on the securities charges, and the judge sentenced him to a year in the Florida State Prison. Ponzi appealed his conviction and was freed after posting a $1,500 bond.

Ponzi traveled to Tampa,[8] where he shaved his head, grew a mustache, and tried to flee the country as a crewman on a merchant ship bound for Italy. The ship, however, made one last American port call; he was caught in New Orleans and sent back to Massachusetts to serve out his prison term.[1] Ponzi served seven more years in prison.

In the meantime, government investigators tried to trace Ponzi's convoluted accounts to figure out how much money he had taken and where it had gone. They never managed to untangle it and could conclude only that millions had gone through his hands.

Ponzi was released in 1934. With the release came an immediate order to have him deported to Italy. He asked for a full pardon from Governor Joseph B. Ely. However, on July 13, Ely turned the appeal down.[9] His charismatic confidence had faded, and when he left the prison gates, he was met by an angry crowd. He told reporters before he left, "I went looking for trouble, and I found it."

Rose stayed behind and later divorced him in 1937,[10] as she did not want to leave Boston. Rose, who later remarried, eventually became the bookkeeper for the New Cocoanut Grove Inc, the parent company of Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub.[11][3][12]

In Italy, Ponzi jumped from scheme to scheme, but little came of them. Benito Mussolini gave him a job in the financial section of his government. However, he mismanaged things so badly that he was forced to flee to South America--but not before taking an undisclosed amount from the Italian treasury.

He eventually got a job in Brazil as an agent for Ala Littoria, the Italian state airline.[2] During World War II, however, Brazil sided with the Allies, and the airline's operation in the country was shut down.

Death

Ponzi spent the last years of his life in poverty, working occasionally as a translator. His health suffered. A heart attack in 1941 left him considerably weakened. His eyesight began failing, and by 1948, he was almost completely blind. A brain hemorrhage paralyzed his right leg and arm. He died in a charity hospital in Rio de Janeiro on January 18, 1949. [2]

In the hospital, Ponzi granted one last interview to an American reporter, telling him, "Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over."[13][3] He also admitted, after years of maintaining his innocence, that he'd engaged in a swindle.

Similar schemes

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d "Ponzi Payment". Time magazine. January 5, 1931. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930255,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "In 1920 thousands of gullibles had a more ornate picture of him. He was then the shrewd, straight-eyed miracle man of Boston's Hanover Street. He promised his clients a 50% profit in 45 days. ... The essence of his scheme was to buy postal reply coupons in countries with depreciated exchange, redeem them at face value for U. S."
  2. ^ a b c "Take My Money!". Time magazine. January 31, 1949. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794507,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "In Italy, Ponzi got on the good side of Mussolini's Fascists, was sent to Rio de Janeiro as business manager for Italy's LATI airlines. The war ended his job; after that he eked out a meager existence as a translator. Committed to a Rio charity ward, blind in one eye and partly paralyzed, he said not long ago: "I guess the only news about me that most people want to hear is my death.""
  3. ^ a b c d e "In Ponzi We Trust". Smithsonian magazine. December 1998. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/In-Ponzi-We-Trust.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "Ponzi himself was probably inspired by the remarkable success of William “520 percent” Miller, a young Brooklyn bookkeeper who in 1899 fleeced gullible investors to the tune of more than $1 million."
  4. ^ Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present, by Jay Robert Nash
  5. ^ "Ponzi Arrested.". New York Times. August 13, 1920. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E7DA1E31E433A25750C1A96E9C946195D6CF. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "Liabilities Put at $7,000,000. Federal Authorities Charge Using Mails to Defraud. State Warrant Charges Larceny. Claims $4,000,000 Assets. Bank Commissioner Fears Hanover Trust Assets Have Been Wiped Out. Investors Grow in Number. Attorney General Still Recording. Hundreds of Note Holders Caught in Crash. Liabilities running at least up to $7,000,000 and assets unknown, save for his assertion that they amount to $4,000,000, are among the echoes of the bursting of Charles Ponzi's bubble this noon, when he surrendered ..."
  6. ^ a b "What Madoff could learn from Ponzi". CNNMoney.com. January 13, 2009. http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/13/news/newsmakers/ponzi.jail.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009011312. Retrieved on 2009-04-15.
  7. ^ "Proceedings to Deport Coupon Financier to Canada or Italy Are Begun.". New York Times. November 30, 1924. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E12F73D551B7A93C2AA178AD95F408285F9. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "Charles Ponzi, promoter of the get-rich-quick scheme of four years ago which attracted investments of many millions of dollars, was arrested early today by immigration authorities on a warrant charging that he is in this country illegally. Deportation proceedings will begin immediately, it was said by Immigration Commissioner John P. Johnson."
  8. ^ a b Florida Times-Union December 22, 2008-Ponzi lived here: Infamous name tied to scheme was local by Jessie Lynne Kerr
  9. ^ "res=FA0C1FFD3E5B107A93C1A8178CD85F408385F9 Ponzi Pardon Plea is Denied in Boston. Governor Ely Decision Is Followed by Court Move to Block Deportation.". New York Times. July 13, 1934. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html res=FA0C1FFD3E5B107A93C1A8178CD85F408385F9. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "Governor Ely today denied Charles Ponzi's petition for a full pardon, which would save him from deportation. The Governor made his decision after a hearing at the State House in which Ponzi pleaded tearfully to remain in this country."
  10. ^ "Sued for Divorce". Time magazine. 1937. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770296,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-21. "Charles Ponzi, 54, celebrated Boston swindler, now a Roman tourist guide; by Mrs. Rose Ponzi whom he married in 1918; in Cambridge, Mass. Grounds: he had served "more than five years" (1922-34) in prison. Explained she: "When he was down ... I stuck to him.""
  11. ^ John C. Esposito, "Fire in the Grove", Da Capo Press, 2005
  12. ^ Grove, Martin A. (2004-2-13). "'Ponzi' Movie Isn't Dunn Deal Yet, But Could Be". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4810464-1.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-23.
  13. ^ Scams - and how to protect yourself from them. ISBN 1409232913. http://books.google.com/books?id=KNC_VRtss60C. "... to an American reporter, and commented about the wild ride he had given Bostonians: "Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. ..."

Further reading

  • Dunn, Donald (2004). Ponzi: The Incredible True Story of the King of Financial Cons (Library of Larceny) (Paperback). New York: Broadway. ISBN 0767914996.
  • Zuckoff, Mitchell. Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend. Random House: New York, 2005. (ISBN 1-4000-6039-7)
  • The History Channel. "In Search of History: Mr. Ponzi and His Scheme". February 9, 2000. (AAE-42325, ISBN 0767016726)
  • Sobel, Robert (1968). The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920's. New York: Norton.

Double Shah : An Enigma

Double Shah : An Enigma

Double ShahIf it were not for the issue of Chief Justice of Pakistan, “Double Shah” affair wouldn’t be gone to back burner so easily. When an issue involves, Rs. 40 billion, its hard to get passed by quietly.

Across Pakistan, its repercussions are still very strong and the issue is yet to be settled, especially in Northern Punjab its as alive as ever. Scams and frauds are everyday happenings in every society, this issue is different in a sense that it has ballooned out in so many directions. It has got some very strikingly interested contrasts.

For some people, he was an outlaw, a ruffian who robbed and cajoled the naive and simple people. For some, he was a kind of Robin hood, who somehow made the poor rich, by doubling their money. Many are of the staunch believe that Pir Sahib had the means, powers and the authority to double their money. In fact Double Shah did double the money of so many people, who came to media and authenticated that they had received their doubled money from Double Shah.

It all started when Sibtul Hasan Shah traveled to Dubai, came back, and doubled his neighbor’s money just in 7 days. The news got out, and people, as everybody seem to have money without working for it, just flocked to get their moneys doubled. Double Shah did doubled the money of lots of people, but the question is that whether he was building his trust to steal a huge sum afterwards, or was he a genuine philanthropist, who wanted everybody rich for doing nothing?

Double Shah The issue came in the limelight at national and international level when on April 13, 2007 Ghakar police arrested Syed Sibtul Hasan Shah, known as Pir Double Shah, from his Nazimabad house in Rs. 30,000 robbery case registered against him. Double Shah, according to some people had doubled billions of rupees of thousands of people. The people, Double Shah largely affected were from the areas of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Sialkot and Hafizabad.

Double Shah, was initially a common school teacher. Couple of years ago, he started this business of doubling money and with his genius turned it into a 40-billion venture. Regardless of the issue of his alleged crime, its really amazing to see how a person has managed to capitalize in the largely rural areas of Punjab. He hasn’t even got any MBA or CA from LUMS or IBA. He had built a vast network of offices and sub-offices in many cities, towns and villages. His clients include a wide array of people from every walk of life. Police officers, lawyers, teachers, shop keepers, villagers, farmers, household wives were among his clients.

The law-enforcement agencies and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have got registered several cases against Shah with Wazirabad police. They have also recovered Rs 17 million from his residence.

After his arrest, all hell broke loose. As the news of his arrest spread, people from every walk of life started to gather around his house and offices. They even protested vehemently against his arrest. Protesters blocked the roads, lodged complaints in media and police stations. Some thought, the arrest of Double Shah has some political implications and his arrest was largely due to an influential political figure of the area.

As the number of people who were clients of Double Shah fell in thousands, and his popularity was growing rapidly, according to some people, Double Shah was being considered for the next political leader from the area. Just on the day of his arrest, when the shock waves spread through the areas, more than 2000 people surrounded the police station to inquire about what happens to their money and majority of them were and still consider Double Shah an innocent man, who was just helping poor and rich alike. The nephew of Double Shah Intezar Hussein, told a daily newspaper that,” the arrest of a “committed man” like his uncle had shattered the dreams of thousands of people.”

Whatever the facts are, the current situation is that thousands of people are really really worried about their deposits, which they made to Double Shah. The deposits are not some petty cash; their total worth is estimated to be round about the frightening figure of 40 billion rupees. Even Guinness Book is considering entering Double Shah’s name. Double Shah had amassed huge assets in the country and at Dubai during the last one year. Besides hotels, Shah ran a number of casinos in Dubai and 17 petrol and CNG stations in different parts of Punjab.

How exactly Double Shah can double whatever sum is invested with him within 70 days is not known. His brother and front-man Intezar Shah said the business was in collaboration with some Dubai-based partners involved in ’stocks’ there. People just want their hard-earned money back, but have they realized that how wrong they were to think that they would be getting money without working for it.

ARY - LIST OF FLATS RESTORED WITH FACILITATION OF NAB

ARY - LIST OF FLATS RESTORED WITH FACILITATION OF NAB

List of Clients Building No.U13

S # Name Apartment Number
1 Aamir Iqbal Sheikh U13-G03
2 Khalid kIqbal Malik U13-G07
3 Tahi r Mehmood / Samiullah Jan U13-G09
4 Rashid Saqib U13-G11
5 Sajida Parveen / sameer Iqbal U13-G13
6 Changaz Khan G13-G18
7 M. Bashir Ansari U13-G20
8 Shayan Munir U13-105
9 SaJid Naeem U13-106
10 Falak Sher Chaudhry U13-108
11 Dr. Nveed Ashfaq U13-111
12 Dr. Osman Faheem U13-114
13 Ahmed Khan U13-116
14 Dawood Muhammad Khan U13-209
15 Mansoor Ahmed Javed U13-215

List of Clients Building No. U14

S # Name Apartment Number
1 Mohammad Idrees CH U14-G04
2 Col Naeem Akhtar U14-G05
3 Rahila Chaudhry U14-G09
4 Saadi Faraz U14-G11
5 Muhammad Ayub Khan U14-G18
6 Pervez Anwar Shah U14-102
7 Meerza Babar Ali u14-103
8 Mr. Ahmed Saeed U14-104
9 Mri Zubair Ahmed U14-111
10 Syed Akhlaq haider Kazmi S/O Syed Muhammad Fazli U14-112
11 Saad Iqbal S/O Ghulam Sabir Iqbal U14-113
12 Mr.Shakeel Jehangir U14-115
13 Fahad Iqbal S/O Ghulam Sabir Iqbal U14-118
14 Zafar Iqbal Muhammad Sulman U14-120
15 Imran Amanullah U14-201
16 Riaz Ahmed U14-207
17 Mrs Dr. Anjum Gulraze W/O Fraz Azim Niaz U14-213
18 Rukhsana Yasmin W/O Shams-ul-Islam U14-214

List of Clients Building No. U15

S # Name Apartment Number
1 Sohail Akhtar U15-G07
2 Imran Malik S/O Abdul Malik U15-G11
3 Khalid Saeed U15-G12
4 Shaista Ashfaq U15-G13
5 Malik Rubnawaz Noon U15-G14
6 Arbab Munir U15-G15
7 Muhammad Zahid U15-G16
8 Arbab Khalik Omer U15-G17
9 Mr. Masood Raza U15-G18
10 Ali Murtaza Shah U15-G19
11 Hina Ahmad U15-G20
12 Muhammad Khalid Hazeem U15-103
13 Lt Col Haved Anwar U15-107
14 Waheed Ahmed U15-108
15 Mr. Shahid Hameed U15-109
16 Shehzad Akhtar U15-110
17 Syed Amjad Ali Shah U15-113
18 Amer Mahmood Butt U15-115
19 Maj. Shahid Latif Ch. U15-116
20 Shahid Nasir Khan U15-119
21 Nadeem Ismat U15-201
22 Mrs. Fahmeeda Bibi U15-202
23 Hassan riaz U15-203
24 Saeed Jan U15-206
25 Hamayun Saeed U15-207
26 Sufi Muhammad Aslam U15-208
27 Ch. Iftikhar Ahmad U15-209
28 Muhammad Kamal U15-210
29 Syed Ali Muzaffar Zaidi U15-211
30 Muhammad Ashfaq U15-212
31 Khurshid Abbasi U15-213
32 Zamir Khan U-15-215
33 Hamida Abdul Sultan U13-G02
34 Shahid Ali Syed U13-G06
35 Shahid Ali Syed U13-G08
36 Abdul Sultan Merchant U14-G06
37 Laila Amirali U14-G08
38 Rabiya Wajiha U14-G13
39 Khawaja Ghulam Allah Buksh U14-G14
40 Mubarik Ali U14-G16
41 Muneer Alam U14-107
42 Dr. Sanobar Atif U14-114
43 Ehtesham Uddin U14-206
44 Azizuddin Ahmed U15-G01
45 Niaz Ahmed Janjooa U15-101
46 Niaz Ahmed Janjooa U15-102
47 Mirza Faizul Rehman U15-106
48 Jauhar Ali U15-117
49 Muhammad Anwar Khan U15-204
50 Ruqaiya Mustafa U15-219
51 Jawwad Rafique U14-109
52 Dr. Ahsan Ali/ Farha Naz U15-G02
53 Dr. Ahsan Ali/ Farha Naz U15-G04
54 Mohammad Bilal U15-G05
55 Mohammad Khalid Bhatti U15-G06
56 Mohammad Inam U15-G08
57 Shahzad Alam Shah U15-G09
58 Dr. Mahzar Basit U15-120
59 Muhammad Yawar Ali U15-216
60 Ahmed Saeed Jan / Huma Ahmed U15-217