ISLAMABAD – Pakistani businessman and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workerChaudhary Hayyab Arif Kamboh lied about his death in 2017 and has nowstarted a company to dupe exporters in Ajman, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to *Gulf Newslink*,the “ideological worker” of the political party had staged his ‘death’ inan apparent road accident in Sharjah on July 17, 2017.
Hayyab’s untimely ‘death’ was even mourned by the Karachi-based party.[image: PHOTO: MQM OFFICIAL]
“RIP Chaudhary Hayyab Arif Kamboh bhai. Our deepest condolences to thefamily of this ideological worker of MQM from Lahore who passed away onJuly 19th in a tragic road accident in UAE,” MQM Television said in itsofficial Facebook page on July 21, 2017.
“May Allah grant him highest level in heaven and give his grieved familyenough courage to bear their loss,” added the social media post.
It was accompanied by a photo collage of the deceased. One picture showedHayyab’s ‘dead’ body wrapped in a white burial shroud.
A Facebook post by his younger brother Mian Zaryab, 20, also followedtalking about his struggle to deal with the ‘loss’.
“Travelling to Bahrain for a project… Initiative of this project was takenby my elder brother Chaudhary Arif Hayyab Kamboh. I’m missing him a lottoday because today I have to handle all of these things on my own… afterhis death I feel alone in my life…” Zaryab wrote on August 7, 2017.[image: PHOTO: FACEBOOK/(MIAN ZARYAB)]
Both posts elicited an outpouring of grief with scores paying tributes tohim.
*Back from the dead*
Hayyab, however, is far from dead. He is alive and kicking.
In fact, if those who dealt with him are to be believed, he’s currentlybusy making a killing by scamming overseas companies.[image: Hayyab Arif sitting in his Ajman Freezone office in 2019. PHOTO:GULF NEWS]
Hayyab Arif sitting in his Ajman Freezone office in 2019. PHOTO: GULF NEWS
In recent weeks, several Indian and Indonesian exporters have contacted *GulfNews* detailing how they were duped out of millions of dirhams worth offruits, vegetables and grains by H&MZ Global Worldwide, a foodstuff tradingcompany launched by Hayyab in Ajman almost 14 months after his purporteddeath.[image: H&MZ owner Hayyab Arif receiving a shipment of onions in Ajman.PHOTO: SUPPLIED]
*Long list*
Shri Siddhivinayak (rice: $93,000); JK Export (coconut: $39,000); DakshahOverseas (bananas: $18,071) Mahakal (onions: $20,034); Bintang Persaka(wood charcoal: $31,041) K. International (red chillies: $35,700); CV TriMitra Persaka (coconut: $12,375) and Bhavya Enterprises (rice: $17,750).It’s a long list and it’s getting longer with each passing day as morevictims come forward.
None of them has been paid. Exporters said they were tricked into shippingtonnes of food material to H&MZ by its owner Hayyab after being promisedpayment within 24 hours of delivery.
It’s not that the exporters didn’t do any due diligence. Some likeMumbai-based Vijay Ruparen, who supplied dried red chillies worthDh130,000, even flew to the UAE last month to verify the antecedents of thecompany.
*Meticulous planning*
“Hayyab Arif sent his manager with a bouquet of roses to pick me from theairport. He drove me to Ajman and put me up in a fancy hotel… I wasimpressed.
The following day, I met Hayyab Arif at his office. There was nothingremotely to suggest all of this was a charade,” he recalled.
“Secure in the belief that I was dealing with a reputed company, I handedthe bill of lading to Hayyab Arif which enabled him to release the shipmentfrom Jebel Ali Port. He promised to pay the same evening. That day nevercame. I spent days chasing him but he refused to see me or respond to mycalls,” added Ruparen who returned to Ajman recently and apprised thepolice about the case.
A similar experience was recounted by Akshay Laljibhai from Bhavnanagar inGujarat who supplied two containers of red onions worth nearly Dh65,000.
“He treated me like royalty but once he got the shipment he discarded melike a used teabag. When I ask for my payment, he mocks me,” saidLaljibhai, sharing profanity-laced *WhatsApp* voice messages where Hayyabcan be heard ridiculing, abusing and even intimidating him.
*Audacity*
“Yes, I scam people … this is my business … A bigger crook than me is yetto be born. I cherry-pick my victims and prey on greedy dogs like you. Thisis what I do for a living. You were a fool to fall for me,” he’s heardtelling Laljibhai in the audio.
He also says that he doesn’t even remember how many cases he has againsthim in Pakistan. “Why do you think I don’t go back there?”
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*Gulf News* was unable to verify the authenticity of the messages althoughHayyab himself told the media outlet’s journalist that the voice in theaudio is indeed his.
*Hayyab responds*
He claimed that he did not fake his death and has no clue why MQM posted anobituary about him.
*But what about the picture of him lying dead?*
“That’s from my theatre days in Pakistan where I played a dead man in astage show,” he said, declining to reveal the name of the play or when itwas staged. “It’s my personal matter,” he said.
If this were the case then why has his younger brother posted the fake newsabout this death on his Facebook page?
“Oh, that was not him. Someone hacked his Facebook account and posted it,”he replied.
Hayyab could not provide any evidence to prove if he or his brothercontacted MQM or Facebook in this regard.
He denied allegations that he has cheated exporters. He said all of themwere lying and that he did not pay them as the foodstuff, veggies andfruits supplied by each one of them were of poor quality.
“I have documents to prove it,” he said.
When asked why he has stopped taking calls of exporters, Hayyab said thathe has lost his cellphone and could not get a replacement SIM card asthere’s an outstanding bill against it. “It’s my personal matter why Idon’t want to clear my dues and get a replacement SIM,” he said respondingto a call made by *Gulf News* on his new cellphone number.
Meanwhile, H&MZ, Hayyab’s second company Saya International FZE, and SohaArif Foodstuff Trading – owned by his brother Zaryab – continue to solicitcustomers in different parts of the world.
Companies which dispatched goods to Soha Arif Foodstuff said they have beensimilarly duped. Best Zest Agro which supplied coconuts, pegged its lossesat $97,412 while Shri Siddhivinyayak reported losing rice valued at $93,000.
*Caught in limbo*
Exporters said their efforts to lodge a police complaint have drawn a blankas the authorities have directed them to the courts.
“It’s not feasible to pursue a court case from abroad. If losing money to ascam is not bad enough, we have to now front high legal costs to fight aprotracted legal battle,” said one of them.
So far, only Sharjah-based 10X has approached courts. It supplied onionsworth $110,000 to Soha Arif Foodstuff.
In an email to *Gulf News*, Soha Arif’s owner Mian Zaryab categoricallydenied links with H&MZ Global Worldwide but a Gulf News investigationproved otherwise.
Mian Zaryab is mentioned as Import Manager on a business card of H&MZGlobal Worldwide. Zaryab insists he does not know how his name appeared onthe business card of a third party.
“It’s a conspiracy against me,” he said.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case as the email printed on the H&MZcard alongside his name is the same he gave while registering the domainname of Soha Arif Foodstuff.
Despite persistent questioning, Zaryab refused to confirm or deny if he’srelated to Hayyab. For most questions, his standard response was nodifferent than his elder brother. “It’s my personal matter.”
This is the second time in recent months when exporters have been hit by amulti-million dollar trading scam. In July, *Gulf News* reported how over20 exporters were left devastated after losing 6,000 tonnes of rice worthDh15.3 million to Dubai-based Al Rawnaq Al Thahbhi whose owner has sincerun away.
*The article originally appeared on Gulf Newslink.*
