Strange twist to a very strange story — Malik Bilal Awan abducted in Islamabad, as his big brother sits in jail for fraud.
When we reported back in November that Malik Noureed Awan, the CEO of Dubai based retail forex broker MMA Forex, was sentenced to two years in jail after a fraud conviction, we thought that this was likely the end to one of the strangest stories we’ve covered.
Awan was arrested back in August by Dubai police following reports that MMA clients were unable to get their money back from MMA.
The strange part of the story?
Well, first of all Awan seems to have become more popular as an inmate than as a CEO. His Facebook following, for example, has grown to more than 37,000 Likes from just about 20,000 when the story first broke. And he has actively used his Facebook page to continually proclaim his innocence while maintaining a we’ll-show-all-you-doubters attitude, despite his fraud conviction.
Even stranger, MMA Forex continued to operate after Awan’s arrest and conviction, although recently the MMA Forex website was (finally) taken down.
And now, a new twist.
Awan’s Facebook page has proclaimed that his little brother Malik Bilal Awan has been kidnapped in Islamabad (Awan is Pakistani, despite running his businesses out of Dubai). It is unclear at this stage if the kidnapping is tied to the shenanigans at MMA Forex, for example in an attempt to extort restitution owed by Awan (the older brother, that is) to the people he defrauded.
We’ll keep you posted as this story develops. Stay tuned to LeapRate….
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.