Pak software company accused of duping 240,000 students

The CEO and 18 others of a Pakistani software firm were charged today for duping over 240,000 students of different countries and minting USD 205 million by awarding them degrees of fake American universities.
Axact, a software house situated in an upscale area of Karachi, has been fraudulently making billions of dollars by deceiving people in the name of awarding degrees of fake colleges and universities through online learning programmes.
CEO Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, managers Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Mohammad Sabir and Zeeshan Ahmed and 14 other employees of Axact were booked in May last year for allegedly preparing and selling fake degrees, diplomas and accreditation certificates of fictitious universities through a fraudulent online system and illegally minting millions of dollars, The Express Tribune reported.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a sessions court filed a chargesheet against the chief executive officer and other senior officials of a software company in a case about fake degrees.
In the final investigation report filed about eight months after the submission of an interim report, the FIA alleged that evidence forensically extracted from database of Axact from 2010 to 2015 showed that diplomas and degrees of fake universities based in the US had been issued to over 240,000 students of different countries, it reported.
The company earned more than USD 205 million in the process.

According to the chargesheet, the money earned from the sale of fake certificates was deposited in the accounts of these companies and their ownership had been confirmed by the detained suspects.

Moreover, it said, a Saudi student sent a complaint alleging that the company had defrauded him by selling a degree of a fake online institution.
The case has been registered against the company and others at the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi under various sections.