Lahore court extends remand in $126m postage fraud case

A Lahore judicial magistrate on Monday extended the physical remand of two suspects in an alleged Rs35 billion fraud involving the online sale of counterfeit United States postage labels, among them the suspected operator of a website named in a US indictment.

Magistrate Naeem Wattoo granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) physical remand of Faheem Akram and of a recently arrested co-suspect, Naeem, until October 30, according to reports in Dawn and ProPakistani. Akram was produced on the expiry of his previous five-day remand; Naeem appeared before the court for his first remand.

The NCCIA alleges that Akram operated LabelsBank.com from August 2023 and used the platform to sell counterfeit US postage labels, more than five million of them by the agency's count. Dawn described Akram as the key suspect in the case.

In the United States, the Department of Justice says a federal grand jury in Florida indicted Akram in September 2026 over the alleged sale of more than 5.1 million counterfeit postage labels, which prosecutors say caused losses exceeding $126 million to the US Postal Service. Prosecutors allege the website sold the labels for about $2 each, regardless of a package's weight, size or destination, and that a US court order authorised the seizure and shutdown of the site.

The Rs35 billion figure cited in the Pakistani proceedings and the $126 million cited by US prosecutors are separate estimates attached to the same alleged operation by different authorities. The reports did not set out how the rupee figure was calculated, and the two numbers should not be read as equivalent.

Monday's hearing was procedural. No charge has been framed in the Pakistani proceedings, and the reports did not say whether Akram has responded to the US allegations, whether he has legal representation in the American case, or whether Pakistan has received any extradition request. The reports also did not specify the exact nature of the case against Naeem, who was arrested recently.

The NCCIA is the federal agency tasked with investigating cybercrime, including online financial fraud, and the case is being heard in Lahore, where the suspects were produced.