DUSHANBE, June 23, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has launched investigation into pyramid-scheme case.

The source at a MoI told Asia-Plus today that they are continuing to receive applications from citizens that have become victims of fraudsters that represented themselves as employees of the network company, Invite to Try.  According to him, police have watched the company’s activities since the beginning of this year and it has been determined that several residents of Dushanbe became victims of the fraudsters.

“On June 22, we received applications from five victims of this pyramid scheme that had invested totaling 70,000 U.S. dollars in the company’s “business,” the source said.

He noted that the company that had worked on principles of the network marketing had been founded by three residents of the Shahrinav district – Ms. Firouza Niyozova, Mr. Sotikhon Karimov and Mr. Sherali Azimov – and two residents of the Vahdat district – Ms. Zamira Khojayev and Ms. Ms. Mahbuba Musoyeva.  “They called on people to invest 1,000 U.S. dollars in the company and enroll two other persons into the scheme and for that they promised them 1,500 U.S. dollars,” the source said.

All the founders of the company have been detained and criminal proceedings have been instituted against them on the provisions of Article 247 (fraud) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code.