FIA Cracks Down On Fraudulent IT Companies For Money Laundering

Web Desk
December 16, 2022

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) launched a crackdown against fraudulent IT companies – Abtach and Digitonics– allegedly involved in money laundering and operating a global scam ring.

The action was taken under Cyber Crime Act and Anti-Money Laundering laws. The companies have been accused of being involved in fraudulent activities, stealing customers’ money, and operating an international scam.

AbTach and Digitonics was also accused of harassment, fraud, money laundering, cheating, identity impersonation, phishing, and extortion against customers in the United States of America (USA) and around the world.

US Government Body Imposes Sanctions & Terminates all Applications Filed by AbTach

All applications filed by entities named in the initial USPTO Show Cause order associated with Abtach Ltd., 360 Digital Marketing LLC, and Retrocube LLC were terminated based on the final order for sanctions that was issued on January 25, 2022.

The USPTO barred the entities from further communication with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), their USPTO accounts were permanently deactivated, and no further accounts will be permitted.

The said entities were responsible for filing thousands of fraudulent submissions to the USPTO, which ultimately invalidated the applications.

US Government Body Notice to AbTach

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had issued a show-cause notice to Abtach for operating dozens of fraudulent low-cost trademark filing agencies.

The strongly-worded show-cause notice was issued against Abtach officials Azneem Bilwani, Salman Yousuf, Muhammad Saad Iqbal and Irsa Faruqui.

To view the show cause notice issued by USPTO

The show-cause order was sent to senior executives of Abtach and its subsidiaries, 360 Digital Marketing and Retrocube. The companies violated USPTO’s rules of practice in activities related to dozens of low-cost trademark filing agencies including Trademark Terminal and Trademark Falcon. Other agencies named in the USPTO show cause notice, owned by AbTach include,

www.trademarkfalcon.com/
www.trademarkterminal.com/
www.trademarkterminal.net/
www.trademarkaxis.com/
www.trademarkregal.com/
www.brandmarkly.com/
www.trademark999.com/
www.trademarkeminent.com/
www.trademarkexcel.com/
www.trademarkfusion.com/
www.trademarkkingdom.com/
www.trademarknations.com/
www.trademarkprofs.com/
www.ustrademarkpros.com/
www.ustrademarksolutions.com/
www.designiconix.com/
www.designingterritory.com/
www.designlogousa.com/

www.digitaltech.com/
www.downtowndigital.com/
www.impressionify.com/
www.logoammo.com/
www.logoexxon.com/
www.logofacility.com/
www.logosparkle.com/
www.logostark.com/
www.logosynergy.com/
www.logotender.com/
www.logovizio.com/
www.manhattandigital.com/
www.newbusinesslogo.com/
www.ohmydigital.com/
www.olivelogo.com/
www.oneclicklogo.com/
www.updownlogodesign.com/
www.websnart.com/

The US agency had evidence of unusual activity on thousands of US trademark applications. The company spent thousands of dollars on Google Ads to defraud victims desiring to register their trademark.

The USPTO show-cause order confirmed using Abtach’s own internal data that trademark filings were submitted from IP addresses through an internet service provider in Karachi. The company claimed to be based in the United States but did not issue any notice.

The show-cause order said Abtach was involved in “an egregious scheme to deceive and defraud applicants for federal trademark registrations by improperly altering official USPTO correspondence, overcharging application filing fees, misappropriating USPTO’s trademarks, and impersonating the USPTO”.

Eventually, Google took action after the USPTO issued the show-cause order and blocked all ads for the sites listed in the order. This eventually stopped Abtach’s fraudulent activities and ability to reach victims via Google search.

The USPTO also claimed that logo designing entities owned by Abtach sent letters falsely claiming to be from USPTO, using fake letterhead and claiming that the recipient’s name, logo or slogan would be registered as a trademark by someone else if the fees were not paid.

According to the show-cause order, Abtach extensively used Google Ads and falsely low fees to register a trademark with some ads claiming that their services are endorsed by the USPTO. The USPTO concluded that Abtach’s operations reached a level of fraud and imposed sanctions.

The show-cause order has evidence revealing that thousands of trademark applicants have been affected by Abtach’s actions. However, many victims unaware of Abtach’s scheme could lose their trademark rights.

FIA action & Subsequent FIR

On 11 September 2020, Director-General FIA received a report from intelligence agencies through the Ministry of Interior after receiving reports from several countries.

The report identified a group of international scammers operating through different companies involved in harassment, fraudulent activities, identity theft, impersonating, cheating, phishing, extortion, and tarnishing the reputation of Pakistan.

View FIR lodged in Pakistan.

The report was forwarded to the FIA Cyber Crime Karachi for registration of a case and initiation of legal action. A First Inquiry Report (FIR) was lodged against executives of the fraudulent IT companies including Abtach, Digitonics labs Pvt Ltd, Digi Avalon (Pvt) Limited, Digi Synergy (Pvt) Limited, Digimatics (Pvt) Limited, Digisol (Pvt) Limited, and BM Webtechnologies

In the FIR several people from the companies were nominated including, Azneem Bilwani, Salman Yousuf, Irsa Farooqui, Saad Iqbal, Saqib Zubair, Muhammad Sabir, and Vinky Bashir. Others nominated in the FIR include