The game is well and truly over for Malik Noureed Awan, the former CEO of Dubai-hased MMA Forex as he now finds himself on the receiving end of a two year jail sentence, handed down yesterday as a result of a guilty verdict at his trial at a court in Dubai on October 30.

The matters surrounding MMA Forex’s eventual demise took a long, drawn out path, beginning in late 2012 and escalating in mid-2013 after account holders began to seek restitution subsequent to the broker’s refusal to return deposits to clients.

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Clients had been duped into investing in MMA Forex’s products with promises of unrealistically high returns from various products including a managed account. Being based in Dubai, the company was able to target the Emerati nation’s large population of overseas workers, and once a deposit had been made, conduct a business which resembles a Ponzi scheme.

Social Media Exposes Improper Business Practice

MMA Forex was exposed as being a scam as customers began to report that they were no longer being paid. As a result, investors began to use the internet to gather and report their situation, often via social media websites such as Facebook.

As is often the case among businessmen with a penchant for gaining wealth via nefarious ends, MMA Forex painted a picture of wealth and success to its clients, including interests in a bogus airline, and multinational heavy machinery operations. The company, according to Gulf News, an English-language news source from the region, has continued its bluster and bravado subsequent to the court’s verdict and Mr. Awan’s jail sentence.

In Denial

According to that particular report, at the time of Mr. Awan’s arrest which was initiated by the UAE authorities issuing enforcement on MMA Forex’s Mai Tower office in Al Nahda earlier this year, and Mr. Awan being arrested and taken to Al Gusais Police Station. A series of investors who had fallen victim to MMA Forex’s scheme appeared at the Police station in order to confront Mr. Awan, who attempted to calm the fears of the investors and that the company was robust and would pay them back.

Many investors considered Mr. Awan’s penalty to be light when considering the damage done to the financial situation of the trail of investors duped by MMA Forex. One particular investor, a Pakistani compatriot of Mr. Awan, had led an online group of investors seeking to bring this company to book had exclaimed “Just two years? I was expecting a much harsher sentence” to Gulf News upon hearing the verdict.