LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Lahore has forwarded a corruption reference to its chairman for final approval against some fraudulent housing societies.

NAB Lahore Director General (DG) Amjad Majeed Aulakh held a monthly open court session here on Monday where a large number of affected people came to seek prompt resolution of their complaints.

They were victims of the Prime Zone scandal, ForU Real Traders, Elite Town, Sadaat Cooperative Housing Society, Zaitoon City and Fahad Town, Manawan.

Updating the Prime Zone scandal, the DG revealed that NAB had forwarded corruption reference to the NAB chairman for final approval after completing the investigation on merit. He said all suspects in the case were apprehended during the course of investigation and efforts were under way to repatriate the absconding prime suspect Imran from abroad via Interpol. However, evidence of embezzlement to the tune of Rs850m had been collected, meanwhile, all known properties of the accused frozen.Regarding ForU Real Traders, he said the claims amounting Rs1.6bn from 2,300 affectees had been received so far, however, the process ofissuing callup notices was underway on a fast-track basis. He emphasised that WhatsApp groups were also created to ensure prompt communication with all victims.

Investigation revealed that the company had no operational business in Pakistan and solely relied on redistributing investors` funds as profit, constituting fraud.

Regarding complaints about Elite Town Housing Society, Mr Aulakh said main suspect Kashif was apprehended over allegations of defrauding 1,400 individuals with Rs1.4bn. He announced the freezing of assets worth Rs2bn belonging to the society administration.

On complaints about Sadaat Cooperative Housing Society, he instructed acceleratinginvestigations into allegations of alleged embezzlement involving nearly 100 plotsin the society.

For Zaitoon City refund seekers, the DG issued instructions to the officers to process refunds promptly.-Staff Reporter