Cryptocurrency scam: Instagram influencer Aziz Com Mirza held in Dubai

Aziz 'Com' Mirza, a Canadian living in Dubai, known for living an extravagant lifestyle advertised on Instagram supposedly built on cryptocurrency money has been arrested for running a scam.

He has been accused of running fraudulent, get-rich-quick schemes one of which was a cryptocurrency supposedly backed by real estate Moghuls – the Habibi coin He called i"the Bitcoin of the Middle East." He also called it a "Sharia-compliant currency."

He lived in the Burj Khalifa and drove supercars. Aziz Mirza called himself a serial entrepreneur, mentor, influencer and philanthropist according to Gulf News.

He has been accused of fraud and is currently in Al Awir jail in Dubai. Com was taken in by authorities after a UAE resident allegedly lost $150,000 in his schemes. An investigation had been started into Mirza's frauds back in April. His scams were not limited to just the Habibi Coin but also dodgy real estate projects.

The victims belonged to Muslim Entrepreneur Network (MEN), a UK-based online community, which Mirza and his brother Rafaqat 'Rocky' Mirza were associated with post its launch in 2015. They also launched an investment scheme called the 'Leverage Programme' guaranteeing participants 'financial freedom' within an year. It is a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions – every participant was asked to arrange £5,000 to join. 300 people signed up for the program at launch with 1200 following suit some months later. Nearly £4 million was raised by LP between 2017-2019.

"Between them, the brothers took millions of pounds from average people around the globe," MEN's co-founder Harun Rashid said in an email to Gulf News from London.

The stories are just beginning to come out with investments ranging from 2000 to millions of dollars.

Mirza, who has 800,000 followers on Instagram with a profile boasting of a life filled with luxury, claimed that he ran several companies using cryptocurrency-based wealth and technology.