Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Noida ponzi scam case: ED to take custody of accused

Widening its probe, the ED will soon seek custody of the arrested accused in the alleged Rs 3,700 crore ponzi scam case perpetrated by seeking fake social media 'likes' from lakhs of gullible investors by a Noida-based firm.
Officials said a competent court has issued production warrant and has asked the jail superintendent to produce before it the three arrrested accused on February 18.
They said the agency wants to question the accused, owner of the company Anubhav Mittal, its CEO Sridhar and technical head Mahesh and record their statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as part of the probe.
ED, on January 5, had conducted raids on the business and residential premises of the owners of the said firm and others in Noida, Ghaziabad and Kanpur.
Its zonal office here had registered a criminal case under the PMLA based on an FIR of the UP police's Special Task Force (STF) which had first unearthed the alleged illegal ponzi or multi-level marketing scam.
The central probe agency had said the fraudsters allegedly cheated about 6.5 lakh gullible investors of an estimated Rs 3,700 crore, a fraud many more times in value than the infamous Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal and Assam which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore.
While the UP STF had arrested the three on February 2, it apprehended the fourth accused, a private bank manager, last week in this case.
The ED had said the accused also "promoted four systematic investment plans offering various incentives depending upon the investment made by the user."
The agency is soon expected to prepare documents and attach the assets of the accused and the firm under PMLA laws to protect the interest of the investors who were allegedly cheated.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Rs 3700 cr online ponzi scam: UP STF shares data with IT, ED

The Uttar Pradesh STF today shared data with the Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate in connection with the alleged Rs 3,700 online ponzi scam which was perpetrated by seeking fake social media 'likes' from more than six lakh gullible investors.

Complaints has crossed 4,500 on the email-id of UP police's Special Task Force (STF) which has arrested three persons in the Rs 3,700 crore online fraud scam.

UP STF ASP Amit Pathak said a team met Income Tax officials and shared the data collected from the Noida-based company and also analysed the data jointly.

It was decided that if needed, UP STF will conduct joint raids with Income Tax officials.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case and sought details from UP STF team for further probe in the case. UP STF and Special Investigation Team assisted the ED. Digital evidence was being further collected.

Investigation team from Hyderabad, in a case registered there, came here and met UP STF team and collected the data.

UP STF has got information that in several parts of the country and other states too, FIRs are being filed against the company.

During investigation, it came to light that on several occasions, the complainants were given their page itself for click. Click used to function only for 30 seconds and thereafter get blocked.

Members could not see the data details.

Company in promotion material has mentioned PPT and claimed it of some government and some private institutions.

These details will be collected on Monday.

The ED's zonal office in Lucknow registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR of the UP STF which unearthed the alleged illegal ponzi or multi-level marketing scam a few days back.

The central probe agency said the fraudsters allegedly cheated about 6.5 lakh gullible investors of an estimated Rs 3,700 crore, a fraud many more times in value than the infamous Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal and Assam which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore.

The UP STF arrested the owner of the company Anubhav Mittal, its CEO Sridhar and the technical head Mahesh on February 2.

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