South Asian Shakedown
NEW VIDEO! You’ve got to be careful who you borrow money from. Avoid loan sharks and those who prey on their community. Tonight, a big local voice in broadcasting is shut down and the owners are blaming a SOUTH ASIAN SHAKEDOWN.
South Asian Shakedown
“In you haven’t noticed, the South Asian community in Fort Bend County, Texas, has literally exploded. Something I learned from many investigations in that community is that a lot deals are done with handshakes. Based trust and culture,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
A flashback to Gilligan’s Island, the Skipper warned us about borrowing or lending money, but he wasn’t the first.
The saying goes all the way back to the 1600s, the poetic writings of Shakespeare.
“Hi, can I talk to you about the Prasla case?” Andrea Palacio said.
Zulfiqar Ali is in the business of loaning money to fellow South Asians living in the Houston area. He’s known in the community as Zulfiquar Tala.
“Just stop,” Zulfiqar Ali said.
“Mr. Ali wanted us to stop asking questions. But we were just getting started,” Dolcefino told the camera.
One answer we already have, Pioneer Finance is a very lucrative business. They own this 5.4 million dollar building along the Southwest Freeway.
Zulfiqar lives here in a 1.8 million dollar house in Sugar Land. It’s nice.
But wait till you see how his business partner lives, his brother Karim Ali. They call him Karim Tala too.
This is where Karim lives.
It’s literally a palace, nearly 18,000 square feet, estimated market value, 9.2 million dollars.
“Look there’s nothing wrong with living in a fancy house. I’m a conservative, I appreciate success. But the Ali brothers are now being accused of tactics that sound a lot like loan sharks,” Dolcefino told the camera.
This is the dark warning in a new Xbox game, Loan Sharks. But it’s no game to Navroz Prasla.
“I’m working in the Bollywood industry and making movies and all these kind of stuff, productions. This is my passion,” Navroz Prasla said.
Navroz is an award-winning media executive. Here he is getting a Gandhi Award in India for the best film.
In June of 2022, Navroz was even honored with a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Two months later, he made the mistake of his life.
He borrowed money from Pioneer Finance, from a guy he thought he could trust, Zulfiqar Ali.
“I have a relation with 16 years for him and this guy. I trust him,” Navroz Prasla said.
Enough trust to borrow millions of dollars to buy this building on the Southwest Freeway, a home for his developing media empire.
Navroz isn’t laughing anymore. His streaming network for America’s South Asian community is a casualty of what’s happening.
Navroz Media wasn’t just entertainment, it was news too, geared to the South Asian community.
“South Asian is nobody has like that kind of station like platform in United States,” Navroz Prasla said.
But it’s shut down now.
And as a result, the voice that used to reach 300,000 South Asians in the United States is gone.
“Everybody is asking for me, why close this NTV, why you close this, what happened. So many people are asking for this,” Navroz Prasla said.
Navroz Media business had been growing. He wanted to move from his Murphy Road studio into this very familiar high-rise on the Southwest Freeway.
He got a 7.2 million dollar mortgage from Pioneer.
While Navroz was ramping up income from his new high-rise, his other businesses were supporting the monthly payments.
Then Hurricane Beryl hit in July 2024.
Navroz met with Zulfiqar Ali because he was having trouble making a few of the 65,000 dollar monthly payments. He says he paid penalties when he eventually caught up.
“I talk to him I say the payment is delay because of the Hurricane Beryl is flooding my all businesses restaurants everything is a flood,” Navroz Prasla said.
His restaurant, Nukkad Dhaba, was flooded. But then Navroz bounced a check, and that’s when Pioneer took action.
“He says, just give me extra collateral,” Navroz Prasla said.
Navroz says he gave Ali extra collateral, deeds to other properties including this one in Cleveland, Texas, worth about 430,000. A way to at least delay foreclosure.
But Navroz says five days after turning over the land, the deeds, Pioneer foreclosed anyway.
Navroz says there was another betrayal. He had a buyer for the building that would more than pay off his loan, but he says Zulfiqar and Karim interfered.
“That time I am angry because he is going to mess my deal, that’s why I am anger, because why he go to directly behind my client and he go just to make a deal for directly, why? Why he is tortious and interferes with me,” Navroz Prasla said.
The high-rise that had been appraised at more than 8 million dollars sold at foreclosure. You know how much for? Just one million dollars.
And the buyer, Spark Wealth Investments, a company owned by the Ali family.
Even so, Navroz’s court case did not go his way, Kevin Powers was his lawyer.
“The loan documents that Mr. Prasla assigned were onerous,” Kevin Powers said.
And it turned out that any collateral deal wasn’t in writing. That’s a warning for everyone who does this.
“When we went to trial, they denied that there was ever any agreement, they denied it had anything to do with this debt, they denied all of that, right, and I thought they looked really foolish,” Powers said.
“He always lying. He’s a big, big liar in this community,” Navroz Prasla said.
“Why did you foreclose on him when you took his collateral?” Palacio said.
“You need to stop,” Ali said.
Navroz now owes the entire amount of the mortgage, not at the original 9.9 percent interest rate, but 18 percent. A much better deal for Pioneer Finance. Imagine if Navroz had been able to sell the building and pay off his note with the original terms.
And Navroz, who had multiple loans at Pioneer, says he was denied documentation that one of the loans was paid off just because he still owed on other loans.
His phone conversation with Zulfiqar is in Gujarati, one of many languages in India, but if the transcript is right, it shows Pioneer was keeping proof of his paid off loan as some kind of coercion.
“Ok, then pay off my other loans and I’ll release it.”
The brothers ignored our calls, but we met their lawyer at the courthouse.
“Well, any lender has a right to secure their position, and if they feel like there is a risk of not being paid, they have to look to alternative means for it to seek repayment,” Charles Lobb said.
“The other thing is, you know, Mr. Prasla was a hurricane victim,” Nikki Meyers said.
“Yeah, we all were. We all were,” Lobb said.
“Yeah, he got all money. I don’t know why he want to be greedy, right? These people are not being ethical,” Salim Momin said.
Salim Momin is another businessman who now regrets borrowing from Pioneer Finance.
“He never gave me documents on time to read the document, but he told us, okay, go ahead and go to the title company, sign the documents, and we’re done, okay? I say, okay this big guy in our community and leadership he has in our community, so we trust him, so yeah, we signed it,” Salim Momin said.
He got two loans from Pioneer in 2021, 1.5 million for his Home Run convenience store another 1.75 for his Kwik Mart.
“Then COVID came and all businesses struggled,” Salim Momin said.
Salim admits he had hard times, checks bounced, but then he claims both brothers, Zulfiqar and Karim, started making threatening phone calls.
“You don’t know what we can do to you,” Salim Momin said.
The threats were via text message too. He says Karim Ali sent him a text implying he could send immigration services after him.
“Look for ICE.”
But they are here legally.
“What kind of business man does that?” Dolcefino told the camera.
Ben Sanchez is one of Navroz’s lawyers.
“The problem with this community is that they do a lot of things by handshakes and verbal agreements that then don’t hold up when the party of power decides that they don’t want that deal,” Ben Sanchez said.
The community he is talking about is the Ismaili community. About 20,000 Ismailis live in Houston and Fort Bend County.
Houston’s Ismaili Center that opened in 2025 is the only Ismaili Center in the entire countries.
Among the principles of the Shia Islam faith are community loyalty and honesty, principles Navroz and Salim believe Pioneer Finance, the Ali brothers are violating.
“Because our community, we came from back home and we don’t have that much education, we learn English in here, we came to America with no language and all that, but we came over here and speak English here, so sometimes we didn’t understand the language of writing on the documents,” Salim Momin said.
“Yes, yes, yes, there’s multiple people like same thing is happening, same thing,” Navroz Prasla said.
Navroz says another trait of Ismailis is avoiding public conflict. Disputes tend to be settled out of fear.
“They don’t want to go to court and then nobody like to go to court, only I am the person that go to court and fight, nobody like,” Navroz Prasla said.
Now the First Court of Appeals says Navroz deserves to make his argument, but he has another mission, to warn people about Pioneer Finance.
“That’s why I’m coming to Dolcefino, if you know, because I need justice, whatever is happening, this one, I want to make proof, what doesn’t matter is my side, his side, I need a proof of all evidence of it,” Navroz Prasla said.
Navroz’s long-term goal is getting the TV streaming again so he can better reach his community with warnings like this one.
“Let’s just say that I would never do business with these people and I would advise other people not to do business with these,” Ben Sanchez said.
“How do you feel about shutting down a huge media company for the South Asian community? Doesn’t that bother you?” Palacio said.
“I want to open a media company again. I will definitely do the programming for this whatever he do,” Navroz Prasla said.
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