Pakistani entrepreneurs arrested for allegedly stealing source code

[jung41]

Four members of a startup formerly incubated at Google-backed The Nest I/O have been arrested for infringing on intellectual property rights, according to local media reports in Pakistan.

The entrepreneurs run Investors Lounge, a portal for budding investors to see updated financial data on things like stocks, mutual funds, and commodities. It recently secured its first round of funding.

The four individuals – Baqar Abbas Jafri, Sennen D’Souza, Hammad Ali Hashmi, and Waqar Ehsan – were previously associated with The Nest I/O, a startup incubator based in Karachi which has received funding from Google for Entrepreneurs, Samsung, and the US State Department.

The complainant in the case says the founders of Investors Lounge were its former employees. While at AMZ MAK Capital, they had been given the task of building a social media platform for investors. Instead they allegedly stole the source code and used it to build an alternative product with a few minor modifications.

“After the product was developed, all the above named four employees, along with the head of software programing and project head, quit at the same time taking the source code along with them,” says a statement from the complainant provided today to Tech in Asia. “The mastermind behind this fraud, Baqar Abbas Jafri, re-launched the same website few months later, which was the idea and property of AMZ MAK Capital, by changing a few interfaces while keeping the exact same idea and the source code.”

Mir Mohammad Ali Khan, the CEO of AMZ MAK Capital, said he took to the courts to prevent the entrepreneurs from running away with the idea. After hearing the merits of the case, the judge decided to issue arrest warrants. The source code is valued at US$140,000.

A formal trial will now be held to determine the outcome of the case.

However, the team behind Investors Lounge categorically denies the accusations. In a press statement they said they “created new and original software code for Investors Lounge portal with the assistance of shared content recently purchased from recognised vendors with the specific intention of using such shared content for Investors Lounge only.”

Jehan Ara, the head of Nest I/O, says the case is totally without any merit. “This is a false accusation,” she outlines. “I know these youngsters personally and the product was created from scratch […] It is heartbreaking and totally unjust that these young entrepreneurs who have struggled so much and worked so hard to get to this stage should be put through this. I stand by them.”

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1114512/pakistani-entrepreneurs-arrested-allegedly-stealing-source-code/

 

[My-Analogous]

Four members of a startup formerly incubated at Google-backed The Nest I/O have been arrested for infringing on intellectual property rights, according to local media reports in Pakistan.

The entrepreneurs run Investors Lounge, a portal for budding investors to see updated financial data on things like stocks, mutual funds, and commodities. It recently secured its first round of funding.

The four individuals – Baqar Abbas Jafri, Sennen D’Souza, Hammad Ali Hashmi, and Waqar Ehsan – were previously associated with The Nest I/O, a startup incubator based in Karachi which has received funding from Google for Entrepreneurs, Samsung, and the US State Department.

The complainant in the case says the founders of Investors Lounge were its former employees. While at AMZ MAK Capital, they had been given the task of building a social media platform for investors. Instead they allegedly stole the source code and used it to build an alternative product with a few minor modifications.

“After the product was developed, all the above named four employees, along with the head of software programing and project head, quit at the same time taking the source code along with them,” says a statement from the complainant provided today to Tech in Asia. “The mastermind behind this fraud, Baqar Abbas Jafri, re-launched the same website few months later, which was the idea and property of AMZ MAK Capital, by changing a few interfaces while keeping the exact same idea and the source code.”

Mir Mohammad Ali Khan, the CEO of AMZ MAK Capital, said he took to the courts to prevent the entrepreneurs from running away with the idea. After hearing the merits of the case, the judge decided to issue arrest warrants. The source code is valued at US$140,000.

A formal trial will now be held to determine the outcome of the case.

However, the team behind Investors Lounge categorically denies the accusations. In a press statement they said they “created new and original software code for Investors Lounge portal with the assistance of shared content recently purchased from recognised vendors with the specific intention of using such shared content for Investors Lounge only.”

Jehan Ara, the head of Nest I/O, says the case is totally without any merit. “This is a false accusation,” she outlines. “I know these youngsters personally and the product was created from scratch […] It is heartbreaking and totally unjust that these young entrepreneurs who have struggled so much and worked so hard to get to this stage should be put through this. I stand by them.”

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1114512/pakistani-entrepreneurs-arrested-allegedly-stealing-source-code/

Mir Mohammed Ali Khan is a fraud its self and he was involved in many fraud cases and then run away from NY.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/02/business/was-he-wiser-than-the-wise-guys.html?pagewanted=all

 

[somebozo]

Mir Mohammed Ali Khan is a fraud its self and he was involved in many fraud cases and then run away from NY.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/02/business/was-he-wiser-than-the-wise-guys.html?pagewanted=all

For whatever else he is, Mr. Khan is a fugitive from justice in New York, where state prosecutors accused him last spring of stealing millions of dollars from several of his brokerage firm's customers -- including some who also happened to be members of the Gambino organized crime family. The Gambino customers, one of whom is in federal prison, have expressed their annoyance by filing a lawsuit against the absent financier and one of his top brokers.

What I believe is that he enticed these youngsters to spend hundreds of unpaid man hours in developing something and when the developers completely starved to death and make their product sucessfull with outside funding. This fugitive cum scammer comes back to take a share of his pie..

The hard working student deserve support here against a well known crook and criminal..Mr. Khan is the guy whose life story is featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio film "Wolf of Wall Street".

 

[Maler]

For whatever else he is, Mr. Khan is a fugitive from justice in New York, where state prosecutors accused him last spring of stealing millions of dollars from several of his brokerage firm's customers -- including some who also happened to be members of the Gambino organized crime family. The Gambino customers, one of whom is in federal prison, have expressed their annoyance by filing a lawsuit against the absent financier and one of his top brokers.

What I believe is that he enticed these youngsters to spend hundreds of unpaid man hours in developing something and when the developers completely starved to death and make their product sucessfull with outside funding. This fugitive cum scammer comes back to take a share of his pie..

The hard working student deserve support here against a well known crook and criminal..Mr. Khan is the guy whose life story is featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio film "Wolf of Wall Street".

His (Mir Mohammad Alikhan) profile on his company website says, "He has served as the Federal Advisor to the Government of Pakistan".

 

[Malik Usman]

Question is if someone working as an employee to some employer and he gain knowledge and later he built a system not 100% like that but something like that he was working before....how someone can justify that he stole the source code or he/she gained enough knowledge to build such a new system...........???

By stealing source code you can say that if they hacked into their systems and stole the source code and then copy pasted to their new system or they did changes in their system to make them suffer.

On other side it is also company's responsibility to put proper measures, check and balance to secure their source code. Each employee must have restricted access, each employee must be working in different modules having access to only that module not the whole source code....and in this case original company seems to failed to do so.

 

[GURU DUTT]

Dont take it as trolling but the curious question is IT and start ups are the so called new economy and why is that first duplicate marksheets of fictitous colleges and now this always has a angle conection with Pakistan and what will this do towards trust and related issues with international investors ?

 

[Viny]

His (Mir Mohammad Alikhan) profile on his company website says, "He has served as the Federal Advisor to the Government of Pakistan".

Chor chor mosare bhai


Its almost became a common practice for those who want to become millionaire overnight. If the case has merrits then it should set and example for others. Industry needs serious cleanups against this kind of pirates.

Question is if someone working as an employee to some employer and he gain knowledge and later he built a system not 100% like that but something like that he was working before....how someone can justify that he stole the source code or he/she gained enough knowledge to build such a new system...........???

By stealing source code you can say that if they hacked into their systems and stole the source code and then copy pasted to their new system or they did changes in their system to make them suffer.

On other side it is also company's responsibility to put proper measures, check and balance to secure their source code. Each employee must have restricted access, each employee must be working in different modules having access to only that module not the whole source code....and in this case original company seems to failed to do so.

There are various binding agreements that and employee sign, that includes NDA, NC, NA and various other measures to control the rights and ownership of idea, content, technology, code, concept, User experience etc etc.