A judicial magistrate in Lahore on Wednesday granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency five-day physical remand of the main suspect in an alleged Rs35 billion fraud built on the online sale of counterfeit US postage labels.
The suspect, identified as Faheem Akram, 33, a resident of Khanewal district in Punjab, was produced before Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo. The agency had sought 14 days of custody for interrogation, but the court allowed five.
The NCCIA’s Lahore zone had announced his arrest a day earlier at a press conference, saying the suspect operated a website that marketed and sold more than five million fake postage stamps over a period of more than three years. The investigating officer told the court the site, LabelsBank.com, had been running since August 2023.
A federal grand jury in Florida charged the suspect on September 28 with defrauding the United States Postal Service of $126 million, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. US prosecutors said the website was never authorised to sell USPS products and let customers ship parcels far below official rates by selling labels at about $2 each, regardless of a package’s weight, size or destination.
The US Department of Justice said a court order authorised the seizure and shutdown of the website. On Tuesday, NCCIA Lahore Zone Additional Director Atif Ameer said eight special teams had been formed across Punjab, Islamabad and Sindh to trace the suspect and investigate the network.
Ameer said investigators had identified 16 bank accounts linked to the scheme, including some allegedly operated by the suspect’s close relatives. The suspect has not been convicted; the allegations remain under investigation and the case is before the court.
