By Ramesh Mathew
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Some suppliers in the construction and related equipment industry in Qatar have accused a “firm” of cheating them to the tune of millions of riyals.
“The issue has already been reported to police and the authorities have assured us of all assistance in tracking down the fraudsters,” a victim said yesterday.
About nine businessmen, who estimate their combined loss at about QR6mn, have so far complained about the defrauding.
“We understand many more businessmen have been cheated and they are expected to come forward once the scam is reported in newspapers,” said a Bangladeshi equipment supplier who says he has lost about QR500,000 after supplying generators and similar equipment to the “firm”.
He said that while making the supplies his company had no reasons whatsoever to suspect those behind the “fraudulent firm”.
“We were in fact very impressed seeing their massive store on Street 41 of the Industrial Area and their well-furnished office in a tower in the West Bay financial district,” he said.
The construction materials industry has been rocked by at least three similar scams in less than two years.
It is learnt that details of the kingpin of the latest scam have been passed on to the police and his exit from the country has been blocked. All fraudsters in the scam are from two south Asian nations, it is learnt.
One of the victims said they had verified the “firm’s” documents such as its commercial registration and computer card before supplying goods. The “firm” ran an attractive website.
“Before they began their transactions they told us that their company’s main office was in Kuala Lumpur and their Doha operations started a little over a year ago,” he said.
“However, when we made a visit to their facility in the Industrial Area after one of their post-dated cheques bounced we were shocked to find that they had already moved out of the place,” said the victim.
The allegedly fraudulent company’s operators also owned an outlet of computer accessories in the Muntaza area. One of the key persons who represented the firm, whom a victim identified as “PC” is reported to be in his mid-20s and relatively new to Doha.
An Indian-operated auto-spare and accessories group, having more than 15 shops across Qatar, supplied oil worth QR75,000 to the company against post-dated cheques.
“But later we were shocked to learn that they supplied the same goods in the local market at prices much lower than at what they had purchased from our company. Immediately we alerted our regular clients and that’s how the dealings of the fraudsters came to the open for the first time,” said a representative of the company.
Sources among the victims said an unidentified Lebanese trader, dealing in steel equipment, had lost more than QR2mn.
A trading firm near the Karwa bus station in the Frij Al Ghanem area said it had lost about QR90,000 in the deal.
One of its operators has met the officials of the Indian embassy the other day after filing a complaint at the Capital Police station.
