It is a long and endless wait for victims of IMA scam Premium

Basheera Begum, 65, lost her life savings to IMA 'halal' investment Ponzi scheme in 2017. Her husband died of COVID-19, and she had to get her leg amputated due to gangrene. Thousands of poor, working-class Muslims were cheated of their savings. A court approved the distribution of ₹69 crore in the second tranche to over 55,000 depositors. However, this is only a fraction of the ₹1,400 crore owed to them. Basheera hopes to get her investment back to sustain her for the rest of her life. The fight for justice continues for her and many like her, with no full closure in sight.

Basheera Begum, 65, suffers from diabetes and had one of her legs amputated recently. She is bedridden with no support system to speak of. She says that the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) ‘halal’ investment Ponzi scheme that was busted in 2019 in Bengaluru and COVID-19 that followed have reduced her to this state. 

Basheera’s husband, Wali Ahmed, worked in West Asia for many years and returned home with a life savings of ₹55 lakh in 2017, when IMA was all the rage in the city, especially in the Muslim community as investors were promised and were getting high monthly returns and was approved and advertised as a “halal investment option” by a section of the city’s ulema.

The childless couple invested their entire life’s savings in IMA. Wali Ahmed invested ₹42 lakh in his name and ₹13 lakh in Basheera’s name in 2017. “We hoped we could lead a peaceful retired life. IMA did give us good interest for over a year, which made us happy. But suddenly, IMA went bust, and all our hard-earned money vanished,” Basheera said. 

Her husband was diagnosed with COVID-19 and passed away in 2020. Basheera says he died a broken man waiting to recover his life’s earnings. Basheera had to get her leg amputated due to gangrene the following year. She now waits with the hope that the ongoing investigation and auction of assets of IMA will get her investment back. “If I get our money back, it will sustain me for the rest of my life, for my medical care, among other needs,” she said. 

Basheera is only one among thousands whose savings sank when the IMA halal investment Ponzi scheme went bust in 2019. It was estimated to owe over 63,000 investors around ₹2,600 crore. However, after considering all the claims filed before it, the Competent Authority has pegged the total liability of the depositors at ₹1,400 crore.

The Ponzi scheme, initially a gold investment scheme, diversified its interests into real estate, education and healthcare and lured investors by promising high monthly dividends. Like all Ponzi schemes, when the going was good, Mansoor Khan, the founder of IMA Group, paid high dividends, attracting a steady supply of new investors.

He advertised it as a “halal” scheme. Charging or payment of interest is not considered to be Sharia-compliant as it is deemed to be an exploitative practice. IMA worked on a Limited Liability Partnership basis and did not involve interest in the investment.