Des Plaines man charged in Islamic Ponzi scheme

A Des Plaines man was named this week in a federal grand-jury indictment of a $43 million Ponzi scheme, authorities said.

Amjed Mahmood, 47, of the 300 block of Elk Boulevard in Des Plaines, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud for dealings with Sunrise Equities, a now-bankrupt Chicago firm he had a 10 percent stake in, authorities said.

The indictment, announced Wednesday by the U.S. attorney's office, charged that Mahmood made false statements in obtaining a $20.3 million bank loan with a Sunrise co-owner and arranging another $1.2 million bank loan on his own.

Mahmood will be arraigned in U.S. District Court at a later date. His Sunrise partners, Salman Ibrahim, 37, a Pakistani national, and Akbar Zahid, 59, a U.S. citizen and former Chicago resident, who were hit with the rest of the charges in the 14-count indictment, have fled the country and are believed to be living abroad, authorities said.

Mahmood declined to comment on the case.

The indictment charged that they lost $43.7 million in the Ponzi scheme when it collapsed two years ago, including about $30 million from more than 300 investors and $13.7 million in fraudulently obtained loans from three banks.

A key component of the scheme, according to the indictment, was that Sunrise claimed to be “Shariah-compliant,” meaning that it did not pay investors in interest, prohibited by Islamic law, but instead by monthly payments of profits from real-estate development. The firm, however, was making payments through spiraling investments, authorities said.

Hundreds of their investors were Muslims from the Chicago area and across the nation.