Arif Naqvi Bill Gates saw a $100 Million dollar investment
with Arif Naqvi as a smart move. President Obama happily forked over $500 Million, believing Naqvi
would help him bring peace to the middle east. Neither knew what was going on behind the scenes.
The Pakistani Billionaire was the mastermind behind a $14
Billion investment scheme. He raised the money by enticing people like Gates and Obama with his
works of charity. In reality, he was lining his pockets with money meant for the poor and needy.
Naqvi's Rise Before swiping millions away from
hotshots on Wall Street and in the White House, Naqvi was an ambitious young boy in Pakistan,
born with business in his blood. His father was an entrepreneur himself,
having owned a small plastics manufacturer for years in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Naqvi,
inspired by his dad's business chops, was determined to follow in his footsteps.
He excelled in college, too, and by studying abroad, he planted seeds internationally that paid
huge dividends for him and his business career. Back home in Pakistan, he worked for American
Express. He also spent time back in London working alongside one of the largest accounting firms
in the world, Arthur Andersen, you know, the same one involved in the whole Enron scandal.
Naqvi put in the work that some aren't willing to, and it all paid off. By 1994,
he had saved up $50,000 to put towards a company of his own. He moved to Dubai
and started an investment firm called Cupola. Within five years, Naqvi was making business
deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars in different countries around the globe. In 1999,
he bought an automotive company called Inchcape Middle East for $102 million,
then sold off shares of the business and pocketed $173 million for himself.
He was shaking hands and rubbing shoulders with the elite, building up his stature in the business
world while making meaningful connections with influential figures in business and politics.
The Abraaj Group By 2002, he had garnered
enough personal wealth and prestige among his peers to jumpstart his most monumental
venture yet. He founded The Abraaj Group, the investment firm that would eventually allow
him to do business with the likes of Bill Gates. In its infancy, Naqvi's company had
just $3 million in capital to its name. Still, the dynamic Pakistani entrepreneur had already
proven his willingness to put forth the time and effort necessary to succeed. He built his
empire brick by brick, and within a matter of years, The Abraaj Group was worth $14 billion.
What exactly did his work at Abraaj entail? Well, as a private equity firm,
they essentially served as high-stakes money managers. They were responsible for forming
wise investment strategies and then pooling investor money to bankroll various companies
and philanthropic projects worldwide. Naqvi gained a reputation as a risk-taker thanks
to his dealings in countries widely considered too corrupt to do business.
Perhaps his reckless disregard for corruption should have raised some red flags about his
true intentions, but no one batted so much as an eyelash as Naqvi was making his climb to the top.
Impact Investing It wasn't only his
private equity investments that were gaining the attention and respect of business-heavy hitters.
People were particularly intrigued by The Abraaj Group's involvement in something called impact
investing. Impact Investing was the secret sauce that distinguished his company from the rest.
What exactly is impact investing? Thanks for asking! The core principle of impact investing
is the belief that business should directly affect the well-being of the world and its
people. Your run-of-the-mill investment firm takes your money and promises to turn it into
more money. On the other hand, an impact investment venture not only multiplies
your initial cash investment but also uses your capital to lend aid to worthy humanitarian causes.
This is quite attractive to high-profile entrepreneurs who thrive on good PR.
While money makes the world go round, good PR helps that money keep flowing.
If a guy like Bill Gates, for instance, can get his name in a headline associated
with the construction of hospitals in Africa, it'll do wonders for his public
image. That glimmering public image, in turn, sells more Microsoft products.
That's the cynical view, anyway. Perhaps
business big shots do care about starving children in foreign countries. Either way,
impact investing is a way to make your regular old investment firm look like a
legitimate force for good in the world, and there is immense value in that proposition.
The Abraaj Group's impact investing centered primarily around healthcare. With the help
of Naqvi's many well-off investors, his firm was able to pull together
a billion-dollar fund to finance the development of adequate healthcare
facilities such as hospitals and diagnostic clinics in Africa and Asia.
President Obama Naqvi's work
started to get noticed by some of the world's most important figures. He sat
on advisory boards at the United Nations and Interpol, had business lunches with Prince
Charles and former US Secretary of State John Kerry, and even met with Barack Obama.
Naqvi sought to align himself with the former POTUS after hearing his speech in Cairo in 2009
about repairing the relationship between the United States and Muslim countries in
the Middle East. One of the recurring themes of Obama's message was his determination to utilize
good old-fashioned American capitalism to help stabilize areas overrun by terrorist groups.
Obama believed that giving people jobs and reliable incomes would deter them from extreme
measures such as terrorism. This was music to Arif Naqvi's ears. As someone who was already
using his business endeavors to assist areas of the world in need, Naqvi knew he could get the
US government to jump in bed with his company if he could just get in front of the right people.
After Obama's Cairo speech, Naqvi got on a plane and made his way to Washington, D.C.,
hoping to entice the American government into funding his firm. How was he going to do it?
By flaunting his impact investing exploits, which had already made him an international
superstar with highlight pieces in The New York Times and Forbes magazine, that's how.
Naqvi was able to land the deal with the US government. The Abraaj Group officially became
a federally funded organization with direct ties to the Obama administration. Together,
they pledged to invest in entrepreneurship in the Middle East, hoping that a growing
economy might sort out the social problems plaguing these countries.
In total, the government dumped something in the realm of $500 million into The Abraaj Group's work
in the Middle East. Not only did this partnership further legitimize Naqvi and his company in the
eyes of the world, it also put a lot of money directly into the man's pocket. You see,
there are financial incentives involved in using and investing government money in foreign affairs,
incentives Naqvi was more than happy to accept for his humanitarian efforts.
Naqvi would go on to make a speech about impact investing and its global
significance at a Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship hosted by President Obama.
Naqvi Lux Life At this point, Naqvi was playing in the big
leagues, and his lavish lifestyle made that very clear. For example, he bought his own Gulfstream
jet to fly from dinners with world leaders to business meetings and back. He even personalized
the jet's tail number to ensure everyone knew Naqvi was soaring overhead. He collected
multiple yachts. He likened himself to Sinbad, the iconic sailor and hero from Middle Eastern myth.
Though his work often brought him around the world, he set up camp in his old university
stomping grounds, purchasing a luxurious estate in Oxfordshire,
England. That wasn't his only multi-million dollar home, mind you. Naqvi also bought
an outrageous mansion in the district known as the "Beverly Hills of Dubai."
This was no longer the humble kid from Pakistan hungry to make a
name for himself. He had gorged on everything the world had to offer,
and he'd officially achieved the high-class status he dreamed of as a boy.
Power Couple Thanks to his renowned
work at the helm of The Abraaj Group, Naqvi became a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, an annual meeting of the minds to discuss pressing matters in the wide
world of economics. It's essentially a who's who of corporate influencers and political
leaders. Naturally, savvy business people use it as an opportunity to network with
like-minded individuals who also happen to have gigantic net worths.
Here at Davos, Naqvi first connected with the godfather of the modern PC himself,
Bill Gates. The two shared several commonalities,
most importantly in the way they sought to use their money and power to affect positive change
in the world. They chummed it up at these conferences, with Gates even serving as
the guest of honor at a dinner hosted at Naqvi's home. The pair seemed like a match made in heaven,
and it wasn't long before their friendship blossomed into a business partnership.
Gates' association with Naqvi was a huge boom for The Abraaj Group. The
Gates foundation poured $100 Million worth of capital into the Abraaj Group. However,
Gates' vouching for Naqvi's company generated $900 Million in additional investments.
Whistle Blown Perhaps Mr. Microsoft
should have done a little bit more homework on his business partner before sending so
much money off to die. That's right, the $100 million Gates donated to Naqvi's organization
was promptly flushed down the toilet, and by the toilet, we mean Arif Naqvi's personal bank
account. Naqvi had been lying all along about the extent of his impact investing in other countries.
In reality, as investors lined up to get involved with his firm, he was taking their
money and essentially operating a high-level Ponzi scheme. Much of the cash invested in
The Abraaj Group was used to pay employees' salaries, fund the company's infrastructure,
and pay back previous investments. It was not ending world hunger,
healing sick kids in Africa, or helping any other humanitarian cause Naqvi claimed to be supporting.
He regularly moved money around between various bank accounts set up in tax havens around the
world, keeping up the deception that his investments were healthy and profitable.
It worked for a while, but like with all financial scams, it inevitably resulted in disaster.
Eventually, the money started drying up, and one of Naqvi's advisors told him they would be in the
hole for $100 million within a week. Rather than come clean about his widespread scam,
Naqvi decided to continue lying, selling off shares of his company to make up for
the debts they had incurred. But he didn't give investors their fair share. He kept $154
million from the sale for himself. It seems he wasn't ready to give up the good life,
but the good life was going to be taken away from him very soon.
Naqvi's downfall was set into motion after one of Bill Gates' money managers
noticed some irregularities in The Abraaj Group's financial records. He discovered that the money
donated by the Gates Foundation had not been put towards building hospitals as was originally
agreed upon. Abraaj execs made lame attempts to quell Gates' worries, but it was all for nothing.
An anonymous whistleblower with knowledge of Abraaj's prolific scams
soon sent an email to the firm's investors detailing the massive fraud orchestrated by
Naqvi. That email was also sent to two British journalists named Simon Clark and Will Louch,
who would prove vital in the effort to expose Naqvi for the deceptive scammer he truly was.
The Key Man Clark and Louch
decided to write a book called "The Key Man," which took direct aim at Arif Naqvi's lies at
the helm of The Abraaj Group and the many millions of dollars he stole from investors
and governments the world over. They didn't wait for their book to be published to start
discrediting Naqvi, though. In 2018, they wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal outlining
much of the damning material they would later put in the book itself.
According to the journalist duo's meticulous digging, Naqvi siphoned nearly $800
million away from funds related to The Abraaj Group's various investments. As of 2021,
385 million of that stolen cash remains missing.
Once the cat was out of the bag, Naqvi's firm came crashing down around him,
and life as he had come to know it was over. After Naqvi and two of his top executives at
Abraaj were arrested for the scam, the company's shares were sold off to other
various private equity firms, and Arif Naqvi's glorious creation was officially defunct.
End of the Line Naqvi was taken
into custody at Heathrow Airport in London in April of 2019. He was later extradited to the
US to stand trial for misappropriating $230 million of government funds. He was sentenced
to 3 years imprisonment in absentia by the United Arab Emirates for financial fraud,
and as he awaits his court proceedings in the US, he's staring down a maximum
prison sentence of 300 years for fraud, racketeering, and money-laundering charges.
Arif Naqvi is going to jail for the rest of his life. As cathartic as that news may be for the
countless investors he hoodwinked over the years, in the end, it won't bring back their money—the
damage had been done. Hundreds of millions of dollars had disappeared without a trace. Luckily
for Bill Gates and the other fat cats involved, they've got plenty more where that came from.
The real victims are the poor and starving that Naqvi promised to help. What's the worse crime?
Stealing millions from Billionaires or instilling false hope in the world's most destitute areas?
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