LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected Rs110 billion earning by the sugar mafia during the last one year through ‘speculative pricing’ and on Wednesday constituted 20 teams to lay hands on those involved in it.
Also in the day, the FIA anti-corruption circle registered an FIR against estranged PTI leader Jahangir Tareen’s JDW group and Gourmet Bakers & Sweets Pvt Ltd, Lahore, under sections 420, 468, 471 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3/4 of Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.According to the FIR, during the course of inquiry against the sugar mafia, “it has transpired that sugar industry barons, sugar-brokers & their satta-agents (speculative pricing players), in active connivance with sugar-mills, have transformed into a clandestine sugar satta-mafia and are operating in a collusive but secret-mode, especially through electronic means/ WhatsApp groups to dishonestly and fraudulently maneuver, manipulate and artificially hike sugar prices, amidst hoax of impending sugar-stocks shortages (while sugar-stocks are lying ‘unsold’ or ‘sold/un-lifted’ in mills & godowns and demand-supply gap is artificial)”.
The inquiry reveals “the satta-mafia had already fraudulently ramped-up the (speculative) ex-mill price by Rs20/kg in last one year (from Rs70/kg on Feb 11, 2020 to Rs90 per kg on March 21, 2021; they are now conspiring to pump it upwards of Rs110 per kg in Ramzan.”
During the inquiry it was revealed that “even the leading registered businesses in the country, like Gourmet Bakers & Sweets Pvt Ltd Lahore, are being facilitated by satta-mafia agents to commit huge accounting & tax-frauds in a very organized manner by concealing their actual sugar consumption & consequently business turnover.”
Source: dawn.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
