Entrepreneur running alleged crypto scam in Dubai now behind bars

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A self-styled serial entrepreneur has been arrested after it turned out that he may have been nothing more than a serial scammer. The Dubai-based Canadian Aziz ‘Com’ Mirza is accused of having defrauded hundreds of millions of dollars from his victims through get-rich-quick schemes he perpetrated with the help of his brother. One of the scams involved a cryptocurrency which he hailed as the Bitcoin of the Middle East.

Mirza has been on the limelight for some months now after an investigative report by Dubai-based Gulf News exposed him earlier this year. The report included the testimonies of several of his victims who have lost their money to his schemes, ranging from $6,000 to $380,000. Mirza was alleged to have targeted Muslim investors predominantly, promising them that by investing in his firms, he would guarantee them financial independence in a year.

Despite the allegations from the outlet, Mirza went on with his flashy life and continued conducting his ‘business activities.’ He is reported to own several supercars which he flaunts to his millions of followers on social media and lives in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

It all came to an end when one of Mirza’s victims reported him to the Bur Dubai Police for fraud. The victim, who is a resident of the UAE alleges that Mirza conned him of $150,000 in one of his schemes. He was arrested on October 27 according to the report by Gulf News.

Mirza’s Habibi coin was an instant hit, leveraging on the massive hype that crypto was getting in early 2018. Hundreds of people invested their money in the project, with the victims losing anywhere between $1,500 and $20,000.

One of the victims narrated, “I was familiar with Com Mirza through the internet marketing community where he was considered an authority. I had personal chats with him via Facebook and I sent money to his personal PayPal account.”

It was only after investing in Habibi that they realized it was a worthless coin. Mirza also stopped posting information about the project on his social media pages, with one of the victims remarking, “Com’s Instagram posts are now all about food and gym. It’s been a sad experience for us. Until today there’s been no official word about what has happened with Habibi Coin.”