Fraud complaints against aroon qureshi over get rich-quick scheme that based itself at east london mosque

Fraud complaints against
Haroon Qureshi over get-rich-
quick scheme that based
itself at east London mosque

Fraud complaints against Haroon Qureshi over get-
rich-quick scheme that based itself at east London
mosque
A global “investment” scheme by Haroon Qureshi that targeted the
Muslim community over two years has left some people claiming to be
thousands of pounds out of pocket.

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The Muslim Entrepreneur Network (MEN) was launched in 2015 by two east
London businessmen as an online resource for subscribers to learn from each
other.
Early on the organisation partnered with two Canadian venture capitalists
described as millionaires, Rafaqat “Rocky” Mirza and Aziz “Com” Mirza.
With their encouragement, from January 2017 members were encouraged to
join what was described in video marketing materials as an “investment”
scheme, the Leverage Program, which failed to deliver on several promises
and saw millions of pounds transferred to a nexus of other companies across
the globe.
Some 22 households in Redbridge and five in Havering are thought to have
paid into the scheme, and hundreds of thousands of pounds in refunds were
distributed last year.

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One investor, who put in £10,000, said he believed: “They were
marketing a product that either didn’t exist or hasn’t come to fruition.”
But those still running Leverage have stated it is both legitimate and
ongoing, and that they have been the target of a “smear campaign”.
An investigation by the Recorder has learned:
• At least 1,400 people parted with between £225 and £25,000 each to
join the Leverage Program in 2017 and 2018;
• Scores of others invested in enterprises promoted by MEN and its
directors, with one person from Redbridge stumping up £250,000;

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Harun Rashid, co-founder of MEN and ex-CEO of Empty
Trip, made a series of shocking allegations about
Leverage after leaving in October 2018.

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Investment cash was transferred to the Mirza brothers’ concerns overseas, with
£1.8m alone transferred to Dubai;
Cash brought in later for a separate venture appears to have been used to refund
the first Leverage investors, apparently without investors’ being told;
For six months in 2018 the organisation rented space at Al Madina Mosque in
Victoria Road, Barking for use as its official premises;
Would-be investors were drawn in on social media by a combination of religious
terminology, hyper-marketing and the promise of “once-in-a-lifetime”
opportunities.

mosque
Stop thinking with your brain, start thinking with
your heart. You are never going to be alone. You
are never going to do anything by yourself. You
are never going to not know what to do and what
not to do. We are not going to leave anyone
behind. And as we make you profitable within the
first year we want to make sure we can take you
to a level where you are able to leave your job.”

mosque
Stop thinking with your brain, start thinking with
your heart. You are never going to be alone. You
are never going to do anything by yourself. You
are never going to not know what to do and what
not to do. We are not going to leave anyone
behind. And as we make you profitable within the
first year we want to make sure we can take you
to a level where you are able to leave your job.”
Rafaqat "Rocky" Mirza, September 2017

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Between January 2017 and January 2019 the total that people paid into the
scheme is understood to have been between £3million and £4m.
One of the original co-founders, Harun Rashid, disowned MEN last year and when
approached by the Recorder said he believed Leverage was “a ploy to rob the
Muslim community”, an allegation the paper understands is strongly disputed by
others involved.
Former members are still pleading for refunds they believe they are owed, and
at least 18 people have submitted reports to Action Fraud.
The current organisers insist that Leverage has always been a “membership
programme”, and everyone who should have had a refund has now had one.
Dame Margaret Hodge, the MP for Barking, said: “I have been working hard in
recent years with representatives from mosques and community organisations
across Barking and Dagenham to improve the governance practices in the Muslim
community.

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You can’t let go, and there’s no closure. I’ve given up on myself and I can’t motivate
myself to go back into work." L300 investor, 40 years old
“These deeply worrying allegations uncovered by this newspaper need to be properly
investigated. The exploitation of any community in this borough will not be tolerated. I
know that all Muslim organisations will want to work to stamp out any bad practices and
will be determined to properly protect the Borough’s Muslim community.”
How it began
In February 2015 Haroon Qureshi, 30, from Redbridge, and Harun Rashid, 38, from
Dagenham, set up the Muslim Entrepreneur Network website.

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Haroon Qureshi announces Leverage to Facebook followers in January
2017.

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Monthly subscriptions cost £19.99 and about 1000 people had joined by the first
public event in December 2015.
Early on the co-founders partnered with “Com” Mirza, who describes himself
online as a “serial entrepreneur, investor, mentor, philanthropist and dream
chaser”.
The Canadian national introduced them to his brother “Rocky” Mirza, a 46-year-
old from Ilford, who was presented as a “mathematical genius” and the “Steve
Jobs of the Muslim world”.
On January 7, 2017, Mr Qureshi said on social media he was working with Rocky
Mirza on a new project on behalf of MEN – the Leverage Program.
In various pitches seen by the Recorder Muslims were urged to pay £5,000 in
return for “a profitable business” within 12 months and “financial freedom”.

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Haroon Qureshi and Rocky Mirza in a September 2017
"webinar" to recruit more Leverage investors.

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If the scheme, described on video by Mr Qureshi as an “investment”, did not pay
off, they were promised they would receive a full refund and a £1,000 goodwill
payment – in this video he did not give a time limit for refund requests.
Mr Mirza was presented as the architect of Leverage and its leading figure, but
he told the Recorder he did not take business decisions and was only acting as a
consultant.
This was the beginning of Leverage, an amorphous “community” not backed by
the Financial Conduct Authority that is still running in 2019.
Around 300 people initially signed up and were under the impression they would
either work on collaborative ventures or receive a website built by MEN.
Members also agreed to take on unpaid work, mainly writing online articles about
fitness and nutrition.

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In May and August a second campaign got underway with a fresh wave of would-
be investors now advised they were buying into a “fitness franchise”.
The main recruitment ‘webinar’ took place in September 2017, with people
encouraged to overcome the “poverty mindset” in order to take part.
Mr Mirza told viewers: “As we make you profitable within the first year we want
to make sure we can take you to a level where you are able to leave your job.”
Approximately 1,100 more people, dubbed the L5000, then handed over between
£1,500 and £25,000 on various new investment plans.
Leverage is not a legal entity and never has been, and the fitness franchise
eventually stalled, with no financial gain to those who took part.

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Aziz "Com" Mirza addresses Leverage members at an
event in November 2017.

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I have come to realise that Leverage as an idea is just a mirage. There is no
product and no service."
Harun Rashid, MEN founder and ex-CEO of Empty Trip
And at the same time, at least in part on Rocky Mirza’s instructions, £2m of
investment cash was transferred to the Mirza brothers’ existing businesses and
partners around the world.
The current bosses of Leverage say this money was for contracted services.
Empty Trip
While Leverage was under way a spin-out company, Empty Trip, was registered in
October 2017.
Empty Trip was a planned mobile phone app for taxi and private hire drivers to book
fares on for their empty return journeys.

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Twelve people paid a total of £291,618 into the project, gathered and promoted
by Harun Rashid, who was then acting as CEO, who drew in funds from his own
friends and family for the venture.
He told the Recorder that in his view these funds were “investments”.
The investors included the head of an Islamic school and a former leading figure
in the British Muslim Forum.
Allah chose for you to be here. There were literally hundreds of thousands of
people who had the opportunity to be on this webinar today. Allah chose
you.”
The Recorder has seen evidence indicating that the bulk of cash invested in
Empty Trip was moved into accounts associated with MEN and Leverage between
April 2018 and October 2018, leaving just £7,499 in the Empty Trip account by
October 30.

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Ali Amin, a 40-year-old investor from Bedfordshire, said it was Harun Rashid’s
initial passion for the app that convinced him to put in £33,120.
He said: “Because of Leverage and all those people working on it, I thought it
was going to be successful.”
The current director of Empty Trip is Rocky Mirza’s nephew Azim Nawaz Shah,
and his wife Amandeep Aujla holds 95 per cent of the shares.
Rocky Mirza said he did not know what paperwork accompanied the sale of
“franchises” but said internal investigations had since been carried out into the
running of Empty Trip.
It’s left me so stressed, it’s ridiculous. My baby was born about six months
ago, I can’t see any way of getting my money back and the civil court is going
to cost me an arm and a leg.”

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In a publicly-available video online, Rocky Mirza claims the app had been valued
at $100m, but when prompted by the Recorder he said he did not recognise the
sum and could not comment.
“It’s going to be painful”: The principal investor
The main investor in Empty Trip was a 53-year-old living in Redbridge, who is
currently taking legal advice after not receiving a penny back.

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The man, Mr Ali, said he invested £150,000 in April 2018 after several meetings with
Mr Rashid and Mr Rocky Mirza, during which he said he did not see the relevant
paperwork.
To his knowledge, no anti-money laundering checks, Know Your Customer (KYC) checks
or Sophisticated Investor forms were advanced before he made the three £50,000
payments.
He told the Recorder: “Had I had not met Rocky through a trusted source I wouldn’t
have given him the time of day. He came across as quite convincing and was talking in
a manner that demonstrated technical knowledge.
“I liked the Empty Trip proposition; on paper it was a bloody brilliant idea. And when I
look at other past dealings I have had I’ve not necessarily had a contract.”
In August 2018, as he and family were preparing for Hajj, the Islamic holy pilgrimage
to Mecca, Mr Ali was offered another opportunity by Mr Rocky Mirza.

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An anomalous page on the cryptocurrency exchange
website Bdaq.com features links to copy about personal
trainers, of the type Leverage members were tasked with
writing. The links lead to a set of unfinished webpages.

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Their accounts of what this was for now vary, with Mr Ali saying he was invited to
“piggyback” on an investment into a cryptocurrency exchange, and Mr Rocky
Mirza saying Mr Ali had purchased a share of his equity in “another company”.
The site Mr Ali invested in was bdaq.io, which is no longer live on the web.
While there is no proof of who owned bdaq.io, this paper has obtained proof that
the domain name of bdaq.co.uk was registered by Mr Rocky Mirza’s wife.
On the website of a very similarly-described venture, bdaq.com, one page
inexplicably lists links to promotional copy about personal trainers of the type
written by Leverage members for the now-defunct fitness franchise. Every page
states that ‘Group Boards’ are being viewed in Dubai, at all times.
Mr Ali paid £100,000 in four transactions to a bank account in Mr Mirza’s wife’s
name.

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And within days of Mr Ali’s transaction, £100,000 was wired from her account
over to Stripe: the payment platform being used to process refunds to Leverage
members.
Since the transfers were made the investor has been trying to find out where the
money went and is looking into ways to get it back, including taking legal action.
Mr Ali said: “I feel duped and conned, but I am a successful investor. For some
people £100,000 is ten times their life savings.”
Where did the money go?
A paper trail seen by the Recorder indicates vast sums of cash from Leverage and
Empty Trip shifted between accounts and was transferred to ventures around the
world.

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During the 2017/18 financial year, a total of £1.7m was transferred from the MEN
bank account to the Dubai-based Trainer Sports Exhibitions Organizing, which is
owned by Rocky Mirza’s brother, Arif Mirza.
Separately, £74,051 was paid to a neighbour of Rocky Mirza in Ilford who was
acting as an accountant, while £76,500 was paid to an employee in Banjul,
Gambia.
Other amounts were sent to an account in Jersey and to a telecoms firm in
Berkshire on behalf of Rocky Mirza’s website-generation hub and call centre in
Islamabad, Pakistan.

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Al Madina Mosque in Barking, where MEN rented office
space for six months after moving from Crown House.

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It is understood that some of this was being spent on outsourced services on
behalf of MEN, but in that entire period just £149,976 came back from Rocky
Mirza’s brother’s company to MEN’s bank account.
The HSBC account was closed by the bank in summer 2018.
Separately, in April and May 2018 some £180,000 was transferred from the Empty
Trip bank account to MEN, just as the time Mr Rashid said refunds were hitting
“fever pitch”.
A further £20,000 went to Atkamom Ltd, a bank account used to provide
Leverage members with sporadic ‘gifts’ of £200 a month.
In summer 2018 more than £30,000 appears to have been transferred from Empty
Trip to spend on Facebook marketing for a fresh money-making enterprise,
KidBizo.

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Mosque secretary Ashfaq Siddique praises Rocky Mirza's
intellect on video and says he has come up with a
business model that could benefit mosques in the UK.

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By contrast, just £20,075 of the money paid into Empty Trip was spent on the app
itself - on areas such as back-office functions, TFL licence applications and
freelance work.
Finally, on Monday, September 3 last year, two amounts of £12,501 and £12,500
left the Empty Trip account, marked as refunds for two people who had put in
£49,000.
Bar one individual, these are the only known to have had their money returned
to them from that account, for any reason.
The logged recipients were Ashfaq Siddique, then-director of Empty Trip and
secretary of Al Madina Mosque in Barking, and his brother Ishtiaq.
Ashfaq Siddique denies any knowledge of wrongdoing but has so far declined to
comment on the record.

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Ashfaq Siddique talks about his community work and
relationship with the Mirzas at the formal launch of
Leverage in April 2017.

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The Mosque
Between March and November 2018 the registered base of operations for MEN was Al Madina Mosque in Victoria Road,
Barking, where the organisation rented space.
Mosque secretary Ashfaq Siddique was the director of Empty Trip between October 2017 and October 2018.

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Mr Siddique, a former policeman with Scotland Yard and trustee of the Barking and
Dagenham Youth Zone, was also an early proponent of Leverage and at one event talked
onstage about his relationship with the Mirza brothers.
In a later video seen by the Recorder he told viewers: “Brother Rafaqat [Rocky Mirza],
alhamdulillah [praise be to God], has a very fertile mind. He has been blessed by Allah...
with a wonderful brain.
“He has come up with a project that I believe will help us plan for the future, secure our
ability to do more for our communities and help us to set objectives and work towards
goals.”
Mr Siddique did not comment on the allegations but it is understood he kept a close
relationship with MEN out of concern for the founders and the community, and to get the
organisation on the right track.
Separately, Al Madina published online material suggesting it was in partnership with MEN,
including a video calling on UK mosques and Islamic institutions to sign up to a “debt-free
initiative”.

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A post on Al Madina Mosque's Facebook page.

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Would-be signatories were promised “one hundred per cent halal [permissible in
Islam] residual income… for your establishment and community”.
It is understood that the “debt-free initiative” is no longer going ahead and when
contacted by the Recorder for comment, a representative for Barking Muslim
Association said the mosque and MEN’s relationship was purely that of landlord and
tenant.
They said a “smear campaign” had been run against Al Madina and Mr Siddique,
adding: “Trustees would like to emphasise firstly, that they have never been directly
involved, as representatives of the British Muslim Association, in the business
activities of any of their tenants.
“Secondly, that Mr Ashfaq Siddique has served the local community in Barking with
excellence for more than 30 years.
“And thirdly, that the leaders of the smear campaign should be ashamed of their
intentions and actions – of which ultimately, on the Last Day, God will be the Judge.”

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MEN’s accounts are now 18 months overdue.
In early 2018 a catalogue of allegations began to surface online about MEN,
including the suggestion it was a ponzi scheme: a type of scam offering returns
on investments into businesses that are never set up with older investors later
paid off by with the money acquired from new ones.
Mr Mirza told the Recorder: “A ponzi fraud by definition is entirely reliant on
ongoing replenishment of capital with fresh recruitment of investors…Even on a
casual inspection MEN does not fulfil the basic requirements for ponzi fraud
structure.”
In a video response on March 19, 2018, Mr Qureshi publicly addressed the claims,
saying Leverage could not be a ponzi scheme because it was no longer accepting
new members. He added: “I will challenge you, find one person that we
scammed. One person. You won’t be able to.”

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Our early endeavours to ensure we provided each and every member with a
voice was in hindsight a significant obstacle in the growth of the programme."
On Wednesday: Former Leverage members speak out
PLUS How MEN used social media to attract investors, what next for Leverage
and the Mirza brothers, and what the founders have told us

Fraud complaints against aroon qureshi over get rich-quick scheme that based itself at east london mosque

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