ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), continuing their crackdown on illegal finance companies involved in short-term online loaning, arrested nine people engaged in the unlawful practice and sealed a company at Rawalpindi, FIA sources said on Friday.

The Cybercrime Circle of the FIA initiated the crackdown on people involved in providing facility of online loans on extremely tough conditions, which have resulted in suicide of an unemployed person in Rawalpindi the other day.

FIA Director General (DG) Mohsin Hassan Butt told this correspondent that initially the crackdown on illegal financing companies had been launched in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore, which would gradually be expanded all over Pakistan. The FIA DG said crackdown would be initiated in Karachi in the next week. “The FIA Karachi office has been directed to complete initial preparations for the operation,” he added.

He said the FIA teams were verifying registration of the financial companies with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and those without the registration certificate would be considered as illegal.

The DG said the SECP was the registration and regulatory authority to issue licences to Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) to give loans through the online App. Moreover, the PTA coordinates with the Apple and Google for removal of illegal Apps involved in the microfinancing in Pakistan.

“Crackdown is under way and action would be taken if victim would come forward, who a being harassed or browbeaten by the company through loan sharking.

“The FIA is taking action against all companies which are violating the SECP regulation and those who are unregistered,” Mohsin Butt added.

Meanwhile, the FIA Cybercrime Circle raided the office of financial services in Saidpur Road, Rawalpindi. According to the FIA spokesperson, Inspector Badar Munir sealed various offices of the company in the plaza.

During the preliminary investigation, the arrested accused disclosed they were given targets of call, and each accused used to make 100 to 150 calls on a daily basis. They also used to make calls to friends and relatives of those who had acquired loans, a spokesman for the FIA said, adding that online loan companies had created separate sections related to torture calls in their offices which were assigned tasks separately. The online company had created sections named D-Zero, D-1, D-2, DS-1, DS-2 and DS-3.

The FIA also recovered a large number of documents, computers, laptops, SIMs during raids. After the arrest of the accused, further investigation was under way to get access to other accused.

According to the FIA spokesperson, cases have been registered against 19 accused regarding online loan apps.