Monday, December 31, 2018

Panna labourers who mined a diamond turn crorepatis




Two days ahead of New Year, two labourers of Panna district in Madhya Pradesh received a gift turning them into crorepatis. A big diamond mined by Motilal and Raghuveer Prajapati almost two months ago fetched a price of Rs 2.55 crore in an auction held on Friday.


A Jhansi-based jeweller along with a BSP leader from Uttar Pradesh made a bid of Rs 6 lakh per carat, the highest, in the auction held in Panna. For the 42.9-carat diamond, the amount turned out to be about Rs 2.55 crore, said Santosh Singh, the diamond officer of Panna. He said the bidder deposited a cheque of 20% of the cost and the remaining amount will be paid within a month when he would take possession of the diamond.

“After deducting about 12% royalty and other taxes, the remaining amount would be transferred to the account of Prajapati,” the diamond officer said. It means the two labourers would share about Rs 2.30 crore. They made their fortune when they dug out one of the biggest diamonds in the history of Panna’s shallow diamond mines on October 9. Before that, the biggest 44.55 carat diamond was found in the shallow mines of Panna in 1961.

Completely clueless while carrying the precious stone to deposit it with the office of district diamond officer, the two labourers had said that they would repay their debts once they receive the money. On Friday, neither of them turned up during the auction. Later in the evening, they said they celebrated the moment again by offering prayers and distributing sweets.

“We can now educate our children,” they said. Raghuveer needed the money desperately to repay his debts, said Motilal. “They will receive the sum within a month,” said the diamond officer while talking to TOI.

Charan Singh, who plans to contest Lok Sabha election from Panna said Jain has a turnover of Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore.

Borivli builder held for duping jewellers of ₹8cr




The economic offences wing of Mumbai police arrested a Borivli-based builder who has allegedly cheated several jewellers to the tune of Rs 8 crore.


Ankit Gosalia has been booked under various IPC sections.

Police said though there are several cases pending against him, they arrested him on a complaint filed by Ganpatlal Jain of Pragati Gold Pvt Ltd.

Jain, in his complaint, alleged Gosalia, who owns World Gold Junction Pvt Ltd, approached him claiming he wanted to export gold ornaments abroad. Jain sent over six kg goldworthRs1.8 croreon credit, but Gosalia never paid him. Hence, he approached the police.

Kandivli exec duped of ₹10 lakh




Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against an unidentified person for duping a Kandivli resident of over Rs 10 lakh by promising high returns in the share market. The victim, Ramkrishna Iyengar (42), an executive with a private company, lodged the complaint on December 28 after the accused fled with his money. The accused duped Iyengar by luring him with 6-10% returns on investment.

Dawood aide, 2 others declare diesel as oil to evade high duty

Dharmendra Sajnani
Dharmendra Sajnani



Three persons, including a Dawood associate and a former Customs officer, have been arrested for importing high-speed diesel by declaring it as hydrocarbon oil as the latter attracts a lower duty, causing huge losses to the exchequer. High-speed diesel is the diesel that we get at fuel pumps across the country.


With the three arrests on Saturday, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) claimed to have busted a gang that had been indulging in misdeclaring goods to evade a higher Customs duty.

The trio was arrested with 9,000 metric tonnes of diesel worth Rs 37 crore. The DRI is probing some companies which were indulging in the crime. A source said that the DRI has detained at least 10 containers on the suspicion that their owners did not declared the real goods.

Officials said that the arrested former Customs officer, Indu Shekar, allegedly aided and abetted the crime. The Dawood associate who was arrested, Dharmendra Sajnani, has a criminal record. In 2017, he was arrested by the Ahmedabad anti-terrorism squad (ATS) for the 2000 murder of Rajkot Mills’ manager, Arvind Patel, over a financial dispute. Sajnani shuttles between Dubai and Mumbai and used runs a yarn and velvet business.

The DRI said that Shekar, who took voluntary retirement a couple of few years ago, had been helping the third arrested accused, Anjali Dubey of Flexi India, in importing diesel by declaring it as hydrocarbon. Sajnani, Shekar and Dubey were produced before a court and remanded into DRI custody.

DRI officials claimed that they had received a tip-off about some importers smuggling high-speed diesel into India through Nhava Sheva port by under-evaluating it. “We had information that Shekar and Sajnani were likely to arrive from Dubai on Saturday. We laid a trap at the airport and arrested them,” said an DRI official.

DRI officials said that diesel and petrol can only be imported by authorised public sector companies. Advocate Sujay Kantawala for Sajnani said, “My client is innocent and they are doing legal business. The Custom department’s own lab deputy chief chemist has certified that the seized liquid is furnace oil and not diesel,” said Kantawala.

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Mumbaikars hit by Hyderabad Ponzi scheme

A group of investors from the city, who had collectively invested crores of rupees in the Heera Group of companies, approached the city economic offences wing (EOW), with a complaint they had been conned. An inquiry has been initiated into the matter.
The investors met DCP Parag Manere who handed over their application to the EOW's intelligence unit.
Hyderabad police arrested Nowhera Shaikh, managing director of Heera Group of companies and founder of All-India Mahila Empowerment Party, on Tuesday after a cheating case was registered.
The Heera Group ran 15 different companies. Most investors are Muslims as the company claimed it was conducting business based on Islamic Sharia rules.
TOP COMMENT
sab Paise ke Laalchi log hi yeh scheme mein fasey hoge jinke pass idhar udhar ka Paisa hai.faaltu Paise hai toh gareeb ki madat Karo aise logon ko doge toh yehi hoga..
Arif Siraj
Social activist Adil Khatri approached Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai police and the enforcement directorate and ministry of corporate affairs seeking a wider probe. "Investors had put in money in the Heera Group so that they could plan a Haj or a daughter's wedding with the high returns promised. However, they have been left high and dry," said Khatri.
There are more than two lakh investors in companies floated by Shaikh. The firm, which promised returns as high as 36%, stopped payments in May-June.

Heera noose tightens as cases filed in Mumbai, UAE

The Heera Gold Ponzi scam busted by the Hyderabad city police is growing bigger, with police complaints being filed in other states as well as in the United Arab Emirates.
After the arrest of Heera Group founder Nowhera Shaik in Hyderabad, victims in Mumbai too have come out in the open and lodged complaints with police stations like JJ Marg, Vakola, Trombay police, among others. The local police has directed the complaints to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police for investigation. “We have received multiple cheating complaints against Heera Group. As the case is about cheating depositors, we have directed the complainants to EOW,” JJ Marg police station senior inspector Shirish Gaikwad told TOI over the phone from Mumbai.
15
Heera Group CEO Nowhera Shaik has been charged with cheating several depositors by promising 35% annual returns on deposits through gold trading claiming it is a ‘halal’ business.
Advocate Shane Ilahi Turky, in his complaint to Vakola police station on behalf of his client Iftakar Ahmed Mohammed Yousuf, alleged, “Yousuf was approached by one of the representatives of Nowhera Shaik of Heera Group in 2015 and offered lucrative returns. After the money was deposited, the company failed to return the money or the returns promised on the investment. Another victim, Rubeen Sayeed Chaman Ali, invested Rs 5 lakh and failed to get returns. One Idris Adhafque invested Rs 27 lakh and was duped. At least 50 victims have come forward so far. Mumbai police are yet to register any case against her.”

Responding to the charges, Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act (MPID) unit in-charge senior inspector B P Shelke told TOI, “We will take up a preliminary enquiry into the case and then register an FIR.”
In Hyderabad, Central Crime Station sleuths filed a petition in court seeking police custody of the accused, Nowhera Shaik.
TOP COMMENT
Nowhera was a fraudster who cheated innocent people in the name of islam. It was aclear ponzi scheme which people failed to inderstand.
Shuaib Sogay
Hyderabad CCS deputy commissioner of police, Avinash Mohanty, told TOI, “The police custody petition will come up for hearing in court on Monday. The court has asked us to serve a notice to the accused.”
Meanwhile, Hyderabad police are collecting details of the properties and bank accounts of Nowhera Shaik

Nowhera Shaikh: Single mother in burqa ran multi-state Ponzi scheme worth crores till law caught up

HIGHLIGHTS
Nowhera Shaikh graduated from being a vegetable vendor to one buying and selling used clothes and then venturing into trading in gold.
While running her business, Nowhera managed to obtain a degree in business management and doctorate in marketing.
Nowhera Shaikh

MUMBAI: She started out as a hawker selling vegetables alongside her mother in the southern city of Tirupati when she was in her teens. Few would have known then that the now 45-year-old burqa-clad, single mother would go on to form 17 companies which would boast of 2 lakh plus investors across the southern and western states, and have a combined turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore.

Nowhera Shaikh: From trading in gold to launching a party, her career was full of twists
The turnaround in fortunes seems more dramatic when one considers all the stops in between: over the years, she acquired a degree in business management, started a madrassa for girls, and even formed a party to contest elections in Kar nataka.
But Nowhera Shaikh’s downfall was the outcome of the same expansion that brought her success. As she spread her reach over a period of seven years using a Ponzi scheme—offering returns of 36-42%—her offices and agents in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh drew in more and more investors; there was a whiff of a hawala scandal somewhere. By May 2018, Shaikh had begun defaulting on payments, eventually leading to mismanagement of funds, chaos and police complaints.
Today, as the protagonist in a Rs 500-crore cheating case, Shaikh is in the custody of Mumbai police after she was apprehended in Hyderabad. She was arrested by Mumbai police’s economic offences wing (EOW) on October 25 on a complaint by an investor named Shane Elahi who faced a default. Over the past few days, national intelligence agencies have dropped in on Mumbai police to discuss the case. “Most of her investors are from the Muslim community whom she promised an “interest-free halal business,” said an investigator.

Police on look out for 'absconding' Janardhan Reddy in a ponzi scheme

Ballari-based mining baron and former Karnataka minister G Janardhan Reddy was absconding as police were on the look out for him in connection with a money transaction worth crores of rupees allegedly linked to a ponzi scheme, top officials said Wednesday.
The Central Crime Branch police here is also hunting for Reddy's close aide Ali Khan, who allegedly struck a Rs 20 crore deal with Syed Ahmed Fareed of Ambidant Marketing pvt Ltd, a company accused of involvement in the ponzi scheme, to bail him out from Enforcement Directorate investigation.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said Reddy was absconding and police were looking for him to question him in connection with the case.
"Based on the information gathered the investigation is going on further...CCB is after Ali Khan and Janardhan Reddy," he told reporters here.
CCB sleuths conducted a search at Reddy's Bengaluru residence and seized some documents, deputy commissioner of police Girish S said.
He also said teams of CCB had gone to various places, but declined to divulge more details.
The development comes a day after Reddy's close confidant Sriramulu's sister J Shantha, a BJP candidate, lost in the by-polls from Ballari Lok Sabha constituency, considered a strong hold of the Reddy brothers.
The Congress won the seat breaking BJP's grip over Ballari since 2004.
However, additional commissioner of police (Crime) Alok Kumar said there was no political connection to the probe.
He said his team had been working on the case for the last 20 days, but waited till November 3 for the bypolls to be over for further action, so that it was not politicised.
Reddy, a minister during the previous BJP rule, had been arrested by the CBI in 2011 over alleged multi-crore illegal mining scam and granted bail three years later.
Reacting to the latest development, Sriramulu claimed he did not have any information about the case and whereabouts of Reddy, but added and no one was above law.
"I don't have complete information...I have been saying no one is above law. Let law take its own course," he said.
Asked whether Reddy was an accused or a suspect, the police commissioner said, Fareed's claim is that he paid the money, because he was promised help by Janardhan Reddy in connection with the ED probe and Reddy will have to respond to these claims.
"We also have to verify whether it is a fact, whether ED has got any cases registered against Fareed... we have to recover the public money that was part of the transaction," he added.
The commissioner, however, clarified that as of now there was no evidence to prove about Reddy bribing any ED official.
He said "we will have to investigate it and will get in touch with ED... We cannot straight away say that ED officials are involved. If there is solid evidence, we will not spare anybody."
Detailing about the case, police said Fareed set up Ambidant around 2017 promising returns of about 40 to 50 per cent for investment.
Responding to this, thousands of people invested their money into the company, which initially paid good returns, attracting more and more investors.
On the company failing to pay returns as promised, cases were registered against it, officials said, adding that, during January or February ED had also raided it.
They said, meanwhile, Fareed had met Reddy through Ali Khan requesting for help in bailing him out of ED the case, and Rs 20 crore was demanded in the form of gold through a jeweller known to them in Ballari.
Explaining about the investigation, the Commissioner said, during investigation CCB found a particular transaction of Rs 18 crore being paid by Ambidant to one Ramesh Kothari, who runs Ambika Jewellers in Bengaluru.
Kothari on questioning said he had given 57 kg of gold to a jeweller named Ramesh, who runs Raj Mahal Fancy Jewellers in Ballari.
Ramesh had claimed that the gold was handed over to Reddy's associate Ali Khan, he said.
He said there was no arrest warrant against Reddy, adding that CCB officials have conducted searches at a few places in Bengaluru and Ballari in connection with the case.
On reports about Reddy and associates trying to get anticipatory bail in Hyderabad, he said, he got to know about it only through the media.
Police said they have photographs of some meetings to prove Reddy's direct link to this case, about which they will seek clarification from him during investigation.
Reddy would soon be issued summons in the course of investigation.
TOP COMMENT
Now I understood why people of Karnataka have rejected BJP
Coz of these corrupt reddy brothers
And congress has won yesterday by poll election in bellary coz of this gutter brat
Neel Patil
Police said they have arrested Ramesh and gathered several 'crucial' documents from him.
Fareed was also arrested, but currently out on bail.

Nowhera Shaikh, director of Heera Group of Companies, for cheating 10,000 investors of Rs 500 crore

For three years, there were murmurs about an investment scheme, run from Hyderabad, being on the verge of running aground. The police were well aware about several people having invested in the Ponzi scheme but with no complaint, they could do nothing.

Finally on Tuesday, the city police registered an FIR against Nowhera Shaikh, director of Heera Group of Companies, for cheating 10,000 investors of Rs 500 crore after a businessman, Shane Ilahi Shaikh, lodged a complaint at the JJ Marg police station. Another FIR was registered against Shaikh in Aurangabad on Tuesday. The police said at least 2 lakh investors from across the country have put money in the company’s schemes and the scam amount may actually be Rs 1,000 crore.


“In Mumbai, investors have been discussing in private about the possible collapse of the schemes but none of them came forward,” said a police officer. Vinay Kumar Choubay, joint commissioner (EOW), said “We have registered a case.”


TOP COMMENT

they are many Muslim familys in Mumbai n thane which had investment in this scheme.
All investment by poor family had gone.. please help to get refund
Salim Khan

The Mumbai police will seek Shaikh’s custody from Hyderabad police who arrested her last week in another cheating case for similar Ponzi schemes. Shane Ilahi Shaikh told TOI, “I invested Rs 3 lakh in July 2017 and was promised a monthly return of 2.8-3.2%. As I got returns for a couple of months, I decided to invest more so that I could buy a house. I stay in a rented room right now. I sold my property and invested another Rs 3 lakh. But the firm stopped paying profit since June. I made rounds of their office but could not get the profit or principal amount.” “The agents would mostly target Muslim investors by saying the scheme offered monthly profit and not interest, which is not allowed in Islam,” said a source.



TOI had reported about a group of investors approaching the EOW to register a case against this group on October 20. Advocate Shan Ilahi Turky, who helped the victims lodge complaints, said, “We have been coordinating with the police for last two months and have provided all documents. We are hopeful of justice.”

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Bizman smuggling exotic birds trapped in DRI’s cage




Mumbai:

A businessman was arrested after 34 rare birds—19 of them of exotic species—were seized from him by officials of the Mumbai unit of the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI).


The accused, Dominic Sequeira (40), who is from Pune was arrested outside the Kolkata airport on Monday with the birds which he had illegally brought from South Africa for sale in different cities across India. Though Sequeira has no past cases against him, officials said he is part of a “larger” syndicate that operates in West Bengal, Pune and in Chennai.

The Mumbai unit of DRI’s Mumbai unit nabbed Sequeira, who has prospective clients in the commercial capital, on a tip-off that he had tried to sell the birds of the exotic species in Mumbai. The officials said Sequeira is into illegal trade of endangered birds.

A raid at his house at Vadgaon Sheri in Pune yielded 19 exotic birds and 15 other birds including love birds of African origin, a sun parakeet, two great Billed parrots of Philippines origin and a white cockatoo from Indonesia. Sources said some of these birds are rare and could fetch several lakhs. “Also, there is a big demand for these birds in the international market,” the official said.

“The seized birds have been handed over to Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, Katraj in Pune for safe custody,” said an officer. “The value of the exotic birds is very high. These birds appear to have been illegally imported into the country.”

Last month, four people were arrested after DRI officials busted an illegal trade of shark fins from India and seized 8 tonnes of fins. The agency had also seized a huge quantity of star tortoises in August this year.



RESCUED IN A RAID: Cockatoos, lovebirds, Sun parakeets and parrots were seized in Kolkata by the Mumbai unit of DRI from a businessman from Pune

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Gujarat: 45,000 Madhavpura bank depositors to get their money back

Close to 45,000 depositors of scam-ridden erstwhile Madhavpura Mercentile Cooperative Bank (MMCB) will get their deposits back, said a statement from Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation (GUCBF). In the latest round of returning money to the depositors, those who had deposits upto Rs two lakh will get their deposits back, 17 years after Rs1,200 crore scam hit depositors and bankers alike. Sources in Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) in Gujarat have sought that local cooperative banks, that had lost their money in the scam, should also get their deposits back.

GUCBF, said in a statement that the announcement that depositors with deposits up to Rs two lakh will get their deposits back is as welcome gesture. "It will be a big relief for small time depositors, senior citizens and those in need of medical treatment. We welcome the move that depositors will finally get their money back," said Jyotindra Mehta, chairman of GUCBF.

Earlier, the bank had repaid to depositors with deposits up to Rs one lakh. Now the limits have been raised. Mehta further demanded that just as individual depositors are getting back their deposits, banks which had their deposits in Madhavpura Banks should also be repaid. Till now individual depositors have got back about 52 per cent of their money, while UCBs have got 28 per cent of their deposits back. The idea was that individual depositors should not lose their principal. "But after all, the money deposited by UCBs also belong to individual depositors. So just as direct individual depositors got 52 per cent of their money back, UCBs should also get 52 per cent of their deposits back," demanded Mehta. According to estimates, 281 banks had lost Rs 665 crore in the scam.


National banking watchdog The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had cancelled banking license of MMCB in 2012. A liquidation committee had been appointed, which is trying to recover the dues from those who had taken loans from MMCB. As the loans are being recovered, the money is being returned to the depositors.

The scam had seriously dented the image of cooperative banking sector in general and it took them over a decade to bring back confidence of the depositors.

SOME RELIEF
In the latest round of returning money to the depositors, those who had deposits up to Rs 2 lakh will get their deposits back, 17 years after Rs 1,200-crore scam hit depositors and bankers alike.

Friday, September 21, 2018

Rose Valley case: ED eyes provisional attachment

KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate will appear before the adjudicating authority in New Delhi on Monday to confirm the seventh provisional attachment order in connection with the Rose Valley muddle.
The seventh attachment order, so far the largest in the Rose Valley probe with a market value of more than Rs 2,300 crore, was issued in end-March.
According to sources, a month after company chairman Gautam Kundu’s arrest, ED filed the chargesheet in the case in April 2015 against six people, including Kundu, at a special PMLA court in Kolkata. The chargesheet or prosecution complaint, where proceeds of crime were much lower, was filed on the basis of a Sebi complaint to ED.
The second case was initiated in February 2018 and the prosecution complaint was filed in July. The complaint, in which Kundu, Shibamay Dutta and Amit Banerjee were named, was based on five different cases from places like Tarakeswar, Durgapur and Baguiati. Banerjee got bail in the case.
Some officials in West Bengal Police have sent letter to the Enforcement Directorate, raising questions regarding former Rose Valley investigating officer Manoj Kumar.
Sources said CBI had sent summons to some of the police officers in connection with the Saradha Ponzi probe a fortnight back.
After that, an inspector-rank officer of Kolkata Police sent a letter to the ED director’s office, alleging non-cooperation against Kumar in another case. Kumar, who was the investigating officer in the Rose Valley probe, had been removed after several charges against him.
In a separate development, ED on Tuesday interrogated Shyamapada Samanta and Anupam Dutta, close aides of transport minister Suvendu Adhikari, in connection with the Narada sting operation probe.
During his interrogation, Adhikari had claimed that he was given a donation towards election by Mathew Samuel alias Santosh Shankaran. While he had submitted all necessary documents, ED on Tuesday interrogated his expenditure agent Samanta.

Nine out of 12 companies under Ponzi radar from Telangana

HYDERABAD: After the ministry of corporate affairs ordered inquiries into companies allegedly running Ponzi schemes, it found that of the 12 firms under the radar, nine are from Telangana.
On July 20, the ministry informed Lok Sabha that ‘inquiries’ are ordered against Heera Gold Exim, Heera Retail, Hyderabad, Kausalya Agro Farms and Developers, Kausalya Management Services and Structures, Kausalya Avenues, Dakshin Infrastructure, Heera Developers, Hyderabad, Heera Ice Drop, Heera Foodex — all are based in Hyderabad.
The ministry also revealed that of eight companies against whom ‘inspections’ were ordered, six are from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
MCA said inspection was ordered against Kapil Consultancy Services, Kapil Chits (Kosta), Kapil Infra Avenues, Ramya Constructions, Kapil Foods and Structure, Agri Gold Farms Estates India.
Minister of state for law and justice and corporate affairs, PP Chaudhary said, “The ministry ordered probe into 111 companies in the country. 109 companies were assigned to SFIO and two assigned to regional director, inspection of books and papers of eight companies and inquiry into 12 companies allegedly involved in Ponzi, multi-level marketing and chit fund activities in last three years and current year.”
Enforcement Directorate probe against Heera Group didn’t make a headway, according to sources. CCS case that was booked in 2012 is still under investigation.
CCS DCP Avinash Mohanty told TOI, “The case against Heera group is still under investigation. Though the case was booked in 2012, we started investigations in 2016.”
Heera Group is into gold trading and has been collecting deposits from women to give good returns every month.
A source in MCA told TOI, “Recently, the issue of Heera Group came up at state level co-ordination committees of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where agencies expressed concern. The inquiry into Heera is done by Regional Director’s office which is collecting documents from the company and verifying them.”
When contacted on e-mail and phone, Heera Group authorities failed to respond. However, the group’s promoter Nowhera Shaik released a video message to staff and ‘customers’ recently, refuting the allegations.
Nowhera in her video message said, “The company policy has changed recently. Many customers are agreeing to the policy. Some of them are trying to damage the group. Heera Group has been running for past 15 years on trust. There is no single instance of not returning money. Deposits are made against commodities like gold and money will be returned after trading. Some are seeking their money back, and it will be returned. Customers have benefited all these years. Those who invested ₹1 lakh, have got ₹5 lakh. It’s the Almighty who is running the group. There will be no problems to the group and customers.” The group has offices in UAE, Canada and other countries.

PACL case: ED files charge sheet in Delhi court



New Delhi, Sep 12 () The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday filed a charge sheet against PACL Ltd and its director Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and others in a money laundering probe in the PACL ponzi scam case.
The charge sheet, filed before special judge Kiran Bansal, relates to the attached properties in Australia valued at Rs 472 crore belonging to the firm.

The ED's documents, filed by its special public prosecutor N K Matta, said that "illegal and fraudulent activities on the part of promoters of PGF and PACL have been revealed".

"They collected more than Rs 48,000 crore of funds from investors all over the country through a collective investment scheme in the garb of sale and development of agriculture land," the agency said.

The court has posted the matter for consideration on September 26.

The ED had earlier attached assets, including shares and an immovable property, worth Rs 472 crore in Australia in connection with the probe.

The central probe agency had registered a criminal case against the firm in 2015 after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR against the group, its directors and officials on allegations that "PGF and PACL collected funds from investors all over the country through a collective investment scheme in the garb of sale and development of agriculture land".

It said the properties provisionally attached by it under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are in Australia and valued at about Rs 472 crore.

The agency said out of the funds (collected through the ponzi scheme), Ms PACL Limited "directly and through its 43 front companies (during the period 2009-2014) invested an amount of Rs 650 crore in its group company Ms PIPL which further invested these proceeds".

"Properties worth Rs 472 crore have been attached under the PMLA in the PACL ponzi scam operated by Nirmal Singh Bhangoo. The properties include MiiResorts Group 1 Pty Ltd and Sanctuary Cove properties in Australia," the agency said in a statement.

PACL is being probed by multiple agencies.

In December 2015, market regulator Sebi had ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund the money due to investors.

PACL had raised Rs 49,100 crore from nearly five crore investors that it needs to refund along with promised returns, interest payout and other charges, as per a recent Sebi order.

An attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is aimed at depriving the accused from taking benefits of their alleged ill-gotten wealth and an appeal against it can be filed by the affected party before the Adjudicating Authority of the Act within 180 days of the order. 

Four get bail in Rs 600 crore scam

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh district court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to four persons accused in the Rs 600-crore ponzi scam. The court had earlier issued bailable warrants against the accused.
As four of these accused failed to respond court's notice, the Chandigarh district court has issued bailable warrants against them. The ED has registered a case against the accused under Section 3, punishable under Section 4, of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, in the supplementary compliant in the ponzi scam case.
Earlier, the ED had filed a chargesheet against the six accused, out of whom the mastermind is stated to be in Malaysia, while 5 being proclaimed offenders. Only one accused, Kamal K Bakshi, arrested in the case was granted bail by the district court last month.
The case is related to thousands of investors who were systematically lured and cheated to the tune of over Rs 600 crore by floating ponzi or pyramid schemes assuring exorbitant returns.
The six accused have have been identified as Arvind Kumar Singh of Paschim Vihar, New Delhi; his brother-in-law Yogendra Pratap Singh of Sector 49, Faridabad; Arvind's wife Rita Singh; Paras Nath Singh of Sector 49, Faridabad; Rakesh Singh, son of Paras Nath Singh; and Pankaj Singh, son of Rakesh Singh.
The ED investigation revealed that Arvind Kumar Singh was an agent of Unipay2U Group of companies and between April 2009 and January 2011, he was involved in collecting money from investors in a ponzi scheme floated by Unipay2U Marketing Pvt Ltd. Arvind Kumar Singh along with brother Yogendra Pratap Singh was operating a firm Secured Life.
An account was opened in the name of the said firm at ICICI Bank, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi, and the statement of this account revealed that between April 2, 2009 and January 22, 2012, amounts totaling Rs 32,17,65,373 were credited by way of cash/RTGS transfer and then was siphoned off through cash withdrawal and transferred to various other bank accounts in the names of Arvind, Yogendra, Rita, Paras Nath, Arvind's son and daughter Nikhil and Ashritha.
The enforcement directorate earlier had said that the early investors of the ponzi schemes floated by the firm were paid exorbitant returns in order to win over their confidence. "When thousands of people invested, the companies stopped the payouts."

From Rs 36,000, Ponzi scam grows to Rs 900 crore as cops probe deeper

The economic offences wing (EOW) of the city police, probing an investment fraud, arrested a top official of a city based investment firm, for his alleged role in the Rs 900 crore ponzi scheme fraud case.
The accused, Shivaji Nikale, managing director of Atharva 4 U Infra & Agro Pvt Ltd, was arrested on Wednesday night. When the probe into the began, the fraud was believed to be worth Rs 36,000 and it has now touched Rs 900 crore, said the police. Nikale who was arrested from Byculla where he had come to meet an associate has been sent to police custody till September 10. Earlier this month, the police arrested Ganesh Hajare, director of the firm, in the case.

“Nikale is the mastermind of this scheme,” said an officer.
The EOW which probes white collar crimes and has a dedicated cell for investment frauds and multi-level marketing probe has so far attached land plots belonging to this firm in Mumbai, Thane, Vitthalwadi, Pune, Virar, Wada Dahanu and other places worth over Rs 100 crore.

“We have attached several commercial and residential properties as well,” added an officer.
The scamsters promised to double the money if invested for five years or triple the return on investment for seven years and give four times return on investment if investors made a 10-year commitment. The police said that the accused promised high returns and that investor’s deposits would be re-invested in construction, travel and tourism, educational institutions, hotels and resorts. After a case was registered in June this year, the police conducted searches and found servers of the computers used to run the schemes. “While scanning data, we found over 3 lakh investors involved in various schemes,” said the officer.
A Dahisar resident, Sneha Deware, had lodged a complaint that she had invested Rs 36,000 in 36 months and was promised Rs 49,000 on maturity in 2017. However, she neither got the returns nor the principal. Inspector Baliram Dhas is probing the case. Those named in the FIR include Nikale, Hajare, Sachin Gosavi and Mukesh Sudesh. The police teams have so far frozen over 35 bank accounts and attached properties belonging to the firm in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, said an officer.

Mumbai: One man dupes over 3 lakh of Rs 500 crore in ponzi scheme

HIGHLIGHTS

  1. Mumbai economic offences wing has found that more than three lakh persons invested over Rs 500 crore in ponzi schemes run by Ganesh Hajare.
  2. Hajare, who studied till Std XII, has been sent to police custody till August 13.
  3. The fraudsters had promised double the money in five years, thrice in seven years and four times in 10 years.
  4. Illustration for representational purpose.Illustration for representational purpose.


MUMBAI: The city economic offences wing (EOW), probing an investment fraud, has found that more than three lakh persons invested over Rs 500 crore in ponzi schemes run by Ganesh Hajare, director of Atharva4U Infra and Agro Pvt Ltd, a city-based investment firm, and others.

The first arrest was made last week after some investors called Hajare to Thane’s Talao Pali for a “'meeting”, where a police team was waiting. Soon after he alighted from a private cab, he was detained and taken to the city police headquarters in a crowded local train. Hajare, who studied till Std XII, has been sent to police custody till August 13.

The fraudsters had promised double the money in five years, thrice in seven years and four times in 10 years. “The firm claimed business interests in construction, travel and tourism, educational institutions, hotels and resorts. The directors claimed they would invest the money collected in these businesses,” said an officer. After a case was registered in June, police found the server of computers being used to run the schemes. “We got data from their records. The investors cheated and amount may increase as the probe deepens,” added an officer.

Besides Hajare, those named in the FIR include Shivaji Niphade, Sachin Gosavi and Mukesh Sudesh. “Police froze 30 bank accounts, attached three commercial galas in Dahisar, offices in Thane, Dadar and Borivli, flats in Dahisar, Vashi and Thane, another property in Thane, plots in Shahpur, Palghar and Silvassa, and a cattle farm house in Konkan.

Dahisar resident Sneha Deware had complained that she had invested Rs36,000 in 36 months and was promised Rs 49,000 on maturity of the scheme in 2017 but did not get anything.

Investors were given options, with a minimum of Rs1,000pm. “We suspect there are many more victims. The accused distributed pamphlets, brochures, placed advertisements in newspapers and held seminars to lure victims. They had over 40 staff,” said a source. Inspector Baliram Dhas is probing the case.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Andheri tech support scam: Call centre in the day, 'con' centre at night

The Mumbai crime branch probing a fake call centre racket in Andheri area has revealed that mastermind of the racket David Alphonso had taken the call centre on rent. While it would function as a genuine call centre during the day, at night, it would indulge in miscreancy wherein the wrongdoers pretended to be employees of a reputed internet service provider and minted money by allegedly duping around 1,000 American citizens on the pretext of cleaning up viruses from their computers.

"Our probe revealed that Alfonso had taken the call centre on rent and used to run it under the name of Xfinity. During the day, it used to function as a call centre by the person who had given the call centre to Alfonso on rent. At night, Alfonso and his team would run their bogus call centre from the said office space. Since all the details and software installed in the computers were password protected, those working in the call centre during the day were completely unaware of that the same computers were being used to dupe US citizens at night," said a police officer.

On September 6, a team of officers from Bandra Unit of Crime Branch headed by inspector Mahesh Desai busted a fake call centre racket in at SV Road in Andheri (W) and arrested two suspects —Devid Alphonso and Sandeep Yadav — for allegedly duping around 1,000 American citizens. A total of 38 people were working in the office and they were each paid Rs20,000 per month, police said. The police also found that the callers had illegally procured data of US nationals and were making Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to them.


The staffers informed the police that the said business was being run in partnership by Kalina resident David Alfonso with his friend Arti Saxena. "One Del Jecindo, 26, was the manager of the call centre and Jogeshwari resident Sandeep Yadav, 28, monitored the technical aspects of the racket. We then arrested Alfonso and Yadav on charges of cheating under sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act," the officer said.

While probing the racket in Andheri, the police found another call centre, Innovation 360, operating from adjoining premises. Ran by one Bipin Sahu along with managers Taufiq Shaikh and Shadab Shaikh, the call centre has allegedly cheated US nationals to the tune of Rs 2 crore on the pretext of repairing or restoring their computers, police said.

Monday, September 10, 2018

5 held for Special 26-like I-T raid at bizman’s flat


Conmen Panicked When His Wife Showed Jewellery Bills, Protested


Mumbai:

Luck finally ran out for a gang of five that posed as income-tax officers and targeted homes with unaccounted cash and jewellery when they conducted raids at a Santacruz businessman’s flat and a residence in Kashimira.


In the Santacruz case, they did not steal the jewellery, which they had planned to take away as seized property, because the businessman’s wife, a 48-year-old headmistress, protested and showed the VAT and GST bills for the valuables. Scared that their game would be up, they asked her to give Rs 1,000 to ‘pay the local police’ and left. Suspecting something amiss, she filed a police complaint the same day.

The police said the gang was inspired by the Bollywood heist film, ‘Special 26’. In the film, a group posing as CBI officers execute a fake income-tax raid on a jeweller.

Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, the police said that they would look for luxurious cars in the parking areas of housing societies and collect information about the car owner from the security guard. After keeping a watch on the target’s family for a couple of days and learning their daily schedule, the gang would conduct the ‘raid’. They banked on the probability that their victims would not report the theft of unaccounted cash or gold.

In the Santacruz case, they collected information about the businessman, who owned a Mercedes, from the building watchman and kept tabs on the family. On July 26, around 9.30pm, they rang the doorbell as they knew his wife was alone at home. In her complaint, she said: “They flashed their ID cards and identified themselves as I-T officials. They also showed the search warrant, so I let them in. They told me that they had got a tip-off that I have illegally bought gold ornaments. I showed them the jewellery and even the bills, but they insisted on seizing them as part of the investigation. I protested and started yelling at them.”

The woman realized something was amiss after the five men—Fiaz Kazi (48), Manav Singh (19), Sohaib Munshi (19), Salim Ansari (21) and Imran Ali (25), all school dropouts-—made her pay Rs 1,000 which they claimed they would have to pay to the local cops. “The fake raid lasted almost 30 minutes. They left the place without stealing the jewellery or hurting the woman as they panicked when she started shouting at them,” said a police officer.

When her husband returned home, she told him about the raid and her suspicions about the I-T officers. The couple immediately approached the police. Based on the complaint, zonal DCP Paramjit Singh Dahiya formed a team of Santacruz police that got details of the accused on the police WhatsApp group from their counterparts at Kashimira police about a gang they had busted in August that had the same modus operandi.

The police team identified Kazi’s photograph in the Kashimira case file with the sketch that was prepared in July based on the wife’s description. She even identified him on Saturday. On Sunday, Santacruz police took custody of the five men, produced them in the Bandra holiday court, which remanded them in police custody till September 11.


(Left) The conmen showed fake I-cards and a warrant claiming they were from tax officers. (Right) The businessman’s wife showed them her jewellery and bills; she protested when they tried to ‘seize’ the gold

Royal Twinkle Star Club - 2 directors of firm held in ₹4,500-crore Ponzi fraud

2 directors of firm held in ₹4,500-crore Ponzi fraud


Mumbai:

Two directors of Royal Twinkle Star Club—a company in Wadala which allegedly cheated several investors of at least Rs 4,500 crore-—were arrested on Saturday by officials of the economic offences wing of the city police.


A police officer said they arrested Prakash Uttekar (58) from Prabhadevi and Venkatraman Natrajan (60) from Ghatkopar. “The two were directors in the firm and actively participated in firm’s operations and conspired to cheat people.” said the officer. The two directors will be in police custody till September 14.

The company’s managing director, Omprakash Goenka, had been arrested in June this year. He is currently in judicial custody.

The police have so far received at least 11,000 complaints from investors. The complaint was first registered in Wadala, at the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg police station, and the case was transferred to the economic offences wing. The police said the 18,000 investors include people from various walks of life across the country—farmers, labourers, teachers, government employees and the self-employed.

The first complaint in this case was lodged in February this year. The complainant, a manager at a liquor shop, was initially an agent for the firm and had himself invested his money and that of his relatives’ and clients. The company had lured investors with hotel stay packages based on reward points earned in the investment scheme.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code and the stringent Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors’ Act. The state government has appointed a competent authority to look after properties of the accused which have been attached.

Lemos’ firm Exential Group fraud

Two Goans, living in Dubai, sentenced to 517 years jail for running ponzi scheme
After an investigation, it was found that the company initially paid the due profit to its investors but after the scheme collapsed in March 2016 the payment stopped and the office had to be shut down.
Sydney Lemos from Goa, sentenced to 517 years in jail for running ponzi scheme in Dubai. (Source: Facebook)
Two Goans have been sentenced to 517 years in jail for running a fake investment racket worth more than $13 million in Dubai. The Dubai Misdemeanours Court on Sunday found Sydney Lemos and his senior accounts specialist Ryan de Souza guilty and pronounced the verdict today.

Lemos’ firm Exential Group — a foreign exchange trading firm — had promised to pay its clients 120 per cent annual returns on their investment but failed to do so causing losses to the tune of 50 million dirhams to their clients. On account of the number of complaints received by the duped customers, the office was sealed by the Department of Economic Development (DED), Dubai in July 2016.

After an investigation, it was found that the company initially paid the due profit to its investors but after the scheme collapsed in March 2016 the payment stopped and the office had to be shut down.

According to Gulf News, Lemos was arrested in January last year and was under investigation for ‘criminal allegations’, while de Souza was arrested by officials while he was trying to leave the country. Lemos’ wife is also believed to be a part of the fraud and had been named by investigating officers. She managed to flee the country and is believed to have returned to India.

Quirky Technology Pvt Ltd Fraud Complaints




Two Sakinaka firm directors arrested for Rs 32 crore fraud

Directors of Quirky Technology were arrested after a ponzi scheme run by the firm was exposed. The accused ran a platform through which they solicited investment and offered returns of up to 10 per cent every month.


Sumail Khan and Sumit Sharma have been arrested, while Rahul Saksena (right) is absconding. 

Two directors of a private firm in Sakinaka were arrested on Friday, on charges of duping nearly 1,200 people of at least Rs 32 crore.

The arrests followed after a group of irate men barged into the office of Quirky Technology at Sagar Plaza in Sakinaka and searched for the officials of the top management on August 29, demanding their money. It was then that the ponzi scheme that Quirky Technology was allegedly operating was exposed, as the firm’s executives panicked and made phone calls to the police to save them from angry investors.

Over a week after the Sakinaka police station responded to that call and recorded statements of the investors, on Friday, it arrested Sumit Sharma (30) and Sumail Khan (34), the firm’s directors, and booked them under the Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act. The police have also booked Rahul Saksena, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer and alleged brains behind the scheme. Saksena is absconding, the police said.

The three men are accused of cheating over 1,200 investors of at least Rs 32 crore since March 2017.

The police have accused the men of running a platform P2P Easy, through which they solicited investment and offered returns of up to 10 per cent every month. Quirky Technology runs as a Peer-to-Peer lending platform allowing individuals and institutions to lend money to borrowers of their choice. It allows both lenders and borrowers to sign up on its website and carry out what it claims are hassle-free transactions.

“The accused claimed that they invest the money in real estate and banks,” said N D Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone X.

As many as 430 people from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, who invested amounts ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15 lakh each, submitted written complaints to the police, claiming that they had been cheated by the firms, which had branches in Sakinaka, Marol and Vashi, the police said.

Rohit Shroff, a 32-year-old general manager at a leading software firm and a Wadala resident, claimed to have lost Rs 4.7 lakh since January. “I got to know of this firm through a friend and invested Rs 2 lakh of my savings in January. After receiving returns every month until April, I invested more money. But since July, the firm stopped issuing returns,” he said.

Like other investors, Shroff was given a lender’s agreement by the firm and was issued two post-dated cheques in July, both of which bounced, he claimed.

By then, he had come in contact with other investors with similar stories. “I have friends who lost investments of Rs 7 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. We have formed a WhatsApp group with 250 investors and decided to meet Saksena on August 29,” Shroff added.

So far, the police have collated claims filed by investors who approached them, froze Quirky Technology’s bank accounts, seized its computers and began tabulating its assets.

“The accused stopped returning deposits of the investors from April. So far, it amounts to Rs 32 crore but as more investors are filing complaints, we expect the amount to rise to between Rs 50 and 100 crore,” Reddy said. He added that the firm did not have clearance from the Reserve Bank of India to carry out its activities. The police are also investigating bank accounts of 1,400 individuals to whom the accused allegedly transferred money online.

He added that several employees of Quirky Technology were also among its investors. The employees, the police said consisted mainly of freshers hired through online job portals. “They were paying new MBA graduates Rs 1 lakh a month and doubling their salaries if they brought in more investors. They also paid their receptionist Rs 50,000 a month,” he said.

Khan and Sharma, the police claimed, studied only till class 11 and class 12 respectively. They were picked up from their home in Gilbert Hill, Andheri West, and Behrambaug, Jogeshwari West.

Hitesh Jaiswal, another cheated investor, claimed that the arrested duo spoke in very polished English and had the body language befitting top business executives.

The police said the top management also provided a lot of perks to its employees. “They held parties for the staff at top hotels and themselves roamed around in a rented Rolls Royce car and had also hired bouncers,” Reddy said. The police suspect that the accused spent most of the investors’ money by April and were thus unable to pay them back. “Until now, the accused have returned Rs 5 crore to investors,” said Reddy.

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MUMBAI: The CEO and the vice president of an investment firm have been arrested for allegedly cheating several people of over Rs 27 crore, police said on Saturday.

The firm convinced people to invest in its schemes after promising them a monthly interest of 10%, police added.

Sumit Kailash Sharma alias Jahan Khan (30) and Sumail Khan alias Sameer (34) of investment firm Quirky Technology were arrested by Saki Naka police on Friday while a hunt was on for Rahul Saxena who they claimed was the mastermind of the racket.

Sharma is the vice president and Khan is the chief executive officer of the firm, police said.

"The company had promised investors 10% interest every month starting March last year. This attracted hundreds of investors, some of whom got this interest payout till July this year," an official said.

However, the interest payments stopped abruptly and queries by investors went unanswered, following which some of them approached police, he said.


"Investigations have revealed that between March last year and July 2018, the accused opened 14,083 bank accounts in the name of 3,620 investors and transacted Rs 27.50 crore online," the official said.


"The office of the company has been sealed and six bank accounts belonging to the company and its partners have been frozen," said Navinchandra Reddy, deputy commissioner of police, Zone X.


A total of 488 investors have approached police and a sum of Rs 15 crore is yet to be recovered from the accused, an official said.


He added that a case under relevant sections of the IPC and Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors had been registered and further probe was underway.

Friday, August 31, 2018

Two held for filing false claims in City Limousine scam

The Azad Maidan police have arrested two persons who allegedly tried to dupe a government liquidator appointed by the Bombay High Court in the multi-crore City Limousine scam. Through fake affidavits, the accused had claimed they had invested in the project.
The accused have been identified as Vikas Mhetre, 44, and Vilas Dalvi, 53, both from Sangli. Along with the government liquidator's staffers and another 24 people, they attempted to claim investments they had never made in the City Limousine scheme. The staffers - peons and a clerk - were arrested fake affidavits by the police after a complaint by the liquidator.

"We have arrested the accused and are on the lookout for more fake investors who were trying to make claim," a police officer said.
In 2007 and 2009, the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) had registered two cases against two City Group companies - City Limousine and City Realcom -- for allegedly duping over 70,000 people across the country by promising unrealistic returns on their investments. During the probe, EOW had arrested seven persons, including the firm's chairman, Sayed Masood.
In 2010, the Bombay High Court had ordered the appointment of a liquidator to attend to victims' claims. In 2012, Pankaj Shrivastav, the liquidator, had sent notices to 20,000 investors, asking them to produce documents to process their claims and get back the money.
According to the police, in July 2016, Ramdas Yadav, who is from Sangli, had sent a complaint to the liquidator's office against a clerk, Keshav Satputea, and peons Gopal Bagul and Santosh Chavan, all of whom worked there, alleging that they have been extorting money from him and 25 other investors for a year.
He said that under the law, they were supposed to file a claim from 2015, but the peons told them they would get more money by filing claims from 2013. Yadav had also claimed the peons and the clerk extorted a total of Rs 5.54 lakh from 26 investors to get the sanction letters required to pull off the con, but all of them did not get the sanction letters.
However, when the liquidator's office conducted an inquiry, they learnt that Yadav and the other 25 had never invested any money in the two schemes and had made false claims using fake affidavits - with the help of the accused clerk and peons.
Following this, Shrivastava filed a complaint with the Azad Maidan police, and the 26 fake victims and three staffers were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

Clerk And Two Peons Arrested In City Limousine Scam

The Mumbai police on Sunday arrested a clerk and two peons working for a government liquidator appointed by the Bombay High Court in the multi-crore City Limousine scam for allegedly trying to clear compensation claims in the names of bogus victims

The Mumbai police on Sunday arrested a clerk and two peons working for a government liquidator appointed by the Bombay High Court in the multi-crore City Limousine scam for allegedly trying to clear compensation claims in the names of bogus victims.

The arrested accused are Keshav Satpute, additional divisional clerk and Gopal Bagul and Santosh Chavan, both peons, who were named in a 2016 FIR in the scam registered by the Azad Maidan police. Twenty-six more were booked, including one Ramdas Yadav from Sangli district.

The scam dates back to 2007 and 2009, when the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) registered two cases against M/s City Limousines (India) Ltd and M/s City Realcom India Ltd. The two City Group companies had allegedly duped over 70,000 people across the country by promising unrealistic returns on their investments.

Liquidator appointed
In December 2010, the HC ordered the appointment of a liquidator to attend to victims' claims. In 2012, Pankaj Shrivastav, the liquidator sent notices to 20,000 investors, asking them to produce documents to process their claims.

In July 2016, according to sources from Mumbai police, Yadav, who hails from Sangli, filed an e-mail complaint with the liquidator against Satpute, Bagul and Chavan, alleging they had been extorting him and 25 other investors for a year. He said that under the law, they were supposed to file a claim from 2015, but the peons told them they would get more money by filing claims from 2013.

Conniving 'victims'
Yadav had claimed the peons and the clerk extorted a total of R5.54 lakh from the 26 investors to get the sanction letters required to pull off this con, but all of them did not get the sanction letters. However, when the liquidator's office conducted an inquiry, they found that Yadav and the other 25 had never invested money in the scheme and were making false claims. They also found out that the clerk and peons were in on the whole con.

Later on, based on the complaint of government liquidator Pankaj Shrivastav, the accused were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. "We have arrested three officials on Sunday and they will be produced before the court. More arrests are likely as many accused have been named in FIR for forging their documents," said Manoj Kumar Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1).

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

City Limouzines money back

I came to know that one rama rao mob;9000822558 has got his money back. He has promised to guide anyone who may approach him. I came to know that one rama rao mob;9000822558 has got his money back. He has promised to guide anyone who may approach him. Company assets with investigating authorities to be transferred to Official Liquidator.

The Bombay High Court has directed all the assets belonging to City Limouzines and City Realcom, seized by Economic Offences Wing, Enforcement Directorate and the State’s Competent Authority, to be transferred to the Official Liquidator appointed by HC.

In a landmark judgement that clears the conflict between the investigating authorities’ powers to deal with the assets of a company and a winding up petition that is filed in the court regarding the same company, the court has set a precedent for other cases that once a winding up order is passed, all the assets belonging to the said company will be transferred to the liquidator and the procedure under the Companies Act, 1956 would take over. This order, however, will not apply to any assets owned by Directors of a company personally.

The HC had passed the winding up orders against City Limouzines on December 3, 2010 and City Realcom on March 9, 2012. The liquidator, however, was unable to take over the assets belonging to the company as the criminal cases were lodged prior to the HC order and the investigating agencies had already taken over substantial assets of the companies.

In 2007 and 2009, the Economic Offences Wing had registered two cases against the two City Group companies for allegedly duping over 70, 000 people across the country by promising unrealistic returns on their investments. During the probe, EOW had arrested seven persons, including the firm’s chairman, Sayed Masood.

Among the assets that Justice Dhanuka has directed the agencies to pass on to the liquidator are – Rs 60 lakh deposited by the accused directors of the company while being let out on bail, all the properties and bank accounts, City Limouzines’ Nariman point office, and all the original documents seized from various locations by the EOW of Mumbai police. The EOW has been allowed to retain a photocopy of the documents seized by it for its case.

As per one of the affidavits filed by the EOW before the HC, the total worth of properties seized by the agency amounted to Rs 191 crore. This included 27 immovable properties of which four were held in the name of the two companies, while remaining 23 were in the personal names of the directors of the companies. The EOW had also seized 57 bank accounts of which 11 belonged to City Limouzines and 10 to City Realcom.

The judgement was based on the conflict between the interest of the depositors who were duped by a company and that of its workers, government agencies and other secured and unsecured creditors. Advocate Naushad Engineer, appearing for the liquidator in one of the reports filed by him, argued that provisions of Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act(MPID) could not supersede the provision of the Companies act, and that MPID took care of interests of only the depositors and not the other creditors of the company.

The court has directed the liquidator to adjudicate the claims of the unpaid investors based on the Companies Act as well.

सिटी लिमोझिन चिटफंड घोटाळ्यातील अाणखी एक घोटाळा उघड

मुंबई  -  ‘सिटी लिमोझिन’ चिटफंड घोटाळ्यात बनावट कागदपत्रं जमा करून गुंतवणूकदार असल्याचं भासवत न्यायालयाची फसवणूक केल्याप्रकरणी २९ जणांवर आझाद मैदान पोलिसांनी गुन्हा नोंदवला होता. याप्रकरणाची सखोल चौकशी केल्यानंतर अनेक बोगस गुंतवणूकदारांनी अर्ज केल्याचं लक्षात अालं अाहे. त्यामुळे त्यांच्यावर पोलिसांनी कायदेशीर कारवाई करण्यास सुरूवात केली आहे. अलीकडेच याप्रकरणी पोलिसांनी विकास म्हेत्रे आणि विलास दळवी या दोघांना अटक केली. तसंच या गुन्ह्यांत गुंतवणूकदारांना मदत करणारे महानगर दंडाधिकारी न्यायालयातील (किल्ला कोर्ट) दोन शिपाई अाणि एका क्लार्कलाही पोलिसांनी ताब्यात घेतलं. केशव सातपुते, शिपाई गोपाळ बागुल अाणि संतोष चव्हाण अशी या तिघांची नावं अाहेत.

काय आहे प्रकरण?

२०१० मध्ये ‘सिटी लिमोझिन’ कंपनीचा तब्बल ३८५ कोटी रुपयांचा चिटफंड घोटळा उघडकीस आला होता. या कंपनीत देशभरातील ७० हजारांहून अधिक जणांनी मोठ्या प्रमाणात पैसे गुंतवले होते. घोटाळा उघडकीस आल्यानंतर महानगर दंडाधिकारी न्यायालयाने कंपनीची मालमत्ता विकून गुंतवणूकदारांना त्यांचे पैसे देण्याचे आदेश दिले होते. त्याचबरोबर २०१० मध्ये खासगी समापन अधिकाऱ्यांची नेमणूक करत त्याला २०१२ मध्ये गुंतवणूकदारांचा परतावा देण्याचे आदेश दिले होते.

संधीचा केला दुरूपयोग

त्यानुसार पहिल्या टप्प्यात २० हजार गुंतवणूकदारांना पुरावा म्हणून गुंतवणूक केल्याबद्दलची कागदपत्रे सादर करण्याची नोटीस पाठवण्यात आली. परंतु अनेक गुंतवणूकदारांचे पत्ते मिळत नव्हते. याच संधीचा फायदा घेऊन दलाल रामदास यादव याने गुंतवणुकीची बनावट कागदपत्रे बनवून समापन अधिकाऱ्यांच्या कार्यालयात जमा केली. मात्र पैसे मिळण्यास उशीर होत असल्यानं ते वारंवार समापन अधिकारी कार्यालयात तक्रार करत होते.

टक्केवारीचं आश्वासन

मात्र यादव यांची प्राथमिक चौकशी केल्यानंतर त्यांनी बनावट कागदपत्रं जमा केल्याचं क्लार्क सातपुते आणि शिपाई गोपाळ व संतोष यांच्या लक्षात आलं. त्यानुसार तिघांनी यादवला चौकशीसाठी बोलावलं. या चौकशीत यादवनं तिघांना पैशांमध्ये टक्केवारी देण्याचे आश्वासन दिलं. अशाप्रकारे यादवने अन्य २६ जणांची कागदपत्रे समापन अधिकार्यालयात या तिघांच्या मदतीने घुसवली. प्रत्येक गुंतवणुकदारामागे या तिघांना २२ हजार रुपये मिळणार होते.

अखेर डाव फसला

मात्र वेळीच या चौकडीचा डाव समापन कार्यालयातील अधिकाऱ्यांच्या लक्षात आला. त्यांनी घडलेला प्रकार न्यायालयात मांडला. त्यानुसार न्यायालयानं या चौघांसह इतर २६ बोगस गुंतवणुकदारांवर गुन्हा नोंदवण्याचे आदेश दिले. त्यानुसार आझाद मैदान पोलिसांनी २०१७ मध्ये गुन्हा नोंदवला होता. या गुह्यात २५ आॅगस्ट रोजी आझाद मैदान पोलिसांनी विकास म्हेत्रे आणि विलास दळवी यांना बोगस गुंतवणूकदार म्हणून अटक केली आहे. या आरोपींना पोलिसांनी न्यायालयीन कोठडी सुनावली आहे.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Investment con case: 2 held for false claims on disbursal 70,000 People Fell Victim To City Group Scam

Investment con case: 2 held for false claims on disbursal
70,000 People Fell Victim To City Group Scam


Mumbai:

Two men have been arrested for submitting fake claims in connivance with three staffers from the government liquidator's office. The case pertains to the disbursal of refunds from two defunct companies which defrauded thousands of investors across the country.


In 2010, the Bombay high court ordered the appointment of a liquidator with regard to disbursals from two companies, Citi Limousines and City Realcom. The two City Group firms had allegedly duped over 70,000 people by promising high returns on investments.

On Saturday, the Azad Maidan police arrested Vikas Mahatre (49) and Vilas Dalvi (53) for being fake claimants. Both have been charged for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. Earlier, in May, the police had arrested additional divisional clerk Keshav Satpute and staffers Gopal Bagul and Santosh Chavan, who worked at the liquidator's office.

The economic offenses wing (EOW) went on to arrest seven persons, including company chairman Sayyed Masood, and seized properties worth nearly Rs200 crore. In December 2010, the high court asked the liquidator’s office to make a list of investors duped by the two firms and the money they lost.

While the liquidator’s office was in the process of making the list and distributing money, in 2016, one Ramdas Yadav called up the office and complained that three staffers (Satpute and his subordinates) had cheated him of Rs 5 lakh.

“Yadav was asked to give a complaint in writing, after which the government liquidator, Pankaj Srivastav, was to look into it.

During inquiries, it transpired that Yadav and 29 others had never invested in the two companies and yet they wanted to include their names on the claimants’ list for refund, by paying Rs 5 lakh to Bagul, Chavan and Satpute,” said an officer. The trio made 30 fake affidavits and other documents claiming that they had invested in Citi Limousines and City Realcom between 2007 and 2011.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Educated people falling victims to cyber fraud in district of literates

MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada district is known for its literate population. However, when it comes to online and social media frauds, ‘educated persons’ too are becoming victims.
As per cyber crime sleuths, at least two cyber crimes are happening daily. While some are brought to the notice of police, others go unreported. The latest victim of cyber crime is former MLA J R Lobo, who is also a retired KAS officer. He lost Rs 49,000 to a scamster who called and claimed to be an employee of State Bank of India. On the pretext of updating Lobo’s bank account, the caller got the details of his debit card, including PIN and OTP. The money was later siphoned off in three different transactions.
“Most of the people who get cheated through online frauds are educated. They have become victims in frauds involving ATM PINs (phishing), online matrimony, jobs, gifts, and online shopping. These victims, despite being aware and having read about such scams, are tricked by scamsters,” an official attached to the cyber crime police station told TOI.
The official, who explained the modus operandi for bank frauds based on their investigations, said most of the accused hail from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and northeastern states. They call gullible people and introduce themselves as either a bank employee or a manager. They usually converse in Hindi to take their victims into confidence, so much so that they part with their account details. Before calling their target, scamsters do a thorough research about them, the official added.
The other scam which is common in the district is happening through job sites. The official said that whenever a fresh graduate seeking employment uploads his/ her resume on online job portals, fraudsters call the aspirant, and sweet-talk into believing them, either by complimenting their qualification or promising them good pay package. Fraudsters also take online interviews to gain confidence. At end of the conversation, they ask the aspirants to deposit a lump sum. Once their job is done, fraudsters remain incommunicado.

Surat web designer held for forex fraud, duped city doctor of 2 crore

HYDERABAD: Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths on Saturday arrested a web designer from Surat, Gujarat, for allegedly duping a city-based doctor by luring him into forex trading and cheating him of 2 crore.
CCS officials said 23-year-old Aamir Arif Aghadi and others lure innocent people by inviting them to invest in forex trading. The culprits open accounts and provide potetial investors access to a 'special' software. Aamir and his associates manipulated the software and duped the victim, P Dinesh of Trimulgherry, showing false balance.
Initially, Aamir paid profit up to 25% to Dinesh. Believing that Aamir and his associates were genuine businessmen and his investment status could be tracked on a a day-to-day basis, Dinesh invested up to 2 crore.
"Aamir and others used to introduce themselves using fake names while talking to victims. The accused used to make the victims pay money through unauthorised means like hawala and cite reasons like avoiding taxes. However, after collecting money, they will start evading the victim," police said in a press note. Aamir was arrested in Surat and he was brought on prison transit warrant to Hyderabad on Saturday.

The great Kolkata Bank fraud: Why this ATM scam is a warning bell for you

Three ATMs, 76 victims and over Rs 20 lakh (still counting) missing, all in just 5 days. Bank customers in South Kolkata on Tuesday woke up to one of the biggest ATM frauds in the country.

Customers of Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank reportedly got messages that money had been withdrawn from their accounts from different cities. The victim count, reports say, could go up. As the news trickled in, it spread panic across the city with many queuing up outside banks to check if their money was safe.

It started from the Gariahat area, the scam has now spread to Sarobar, Park Street, Kasba, Behala, Tiljala and Beniapukur areas of the city with reports of frauds emerging with almost every passing day.

According to initial reports, a gang of five members worked for over four months to carry out the fraud. The fraudsters reportedly installed the skimmers -- a machine that copies the credit/debit card data -- at the bank ATM machines some time in April and July, and withdrew money in last week.

Customers have reported several withdrawals from ATMs thousand of kilometers away from Kolkata in Palika Bazzar, Kalka Ji, Hauz Khas areas of Delhi, Jharkhand and Haryana. Among those who have lost money, also include 10 employees of the bank and an AGM of a public sector bank.

"I was having dinner with my family when my wife suddenly received a text message that Rs 20,000 has been deducted from her account. Even before she could realise from where the money was transacted, in came another text of another Rs 20,000 being withdrawn," one customer told ToI.

There are number of such complaints where customers have lost their savings. “My home loan gets deducted on the 30th of every month. On 29th night, Rs 40,000 was deducted from my Canara Bank account in four transactions. I missed the loan repayment for no fault of mine,"said another customer.

The investigating agencies feel that skimming devices were planted on some ATM machines that copied the data and fraudsters used the data to clone cards and used the fake cards to withdraw amount from ATMs at other cities.

Banks have assured that the “money will be refunded to the customers within seven to 10 days upon submission of a copy of the FIR or police complaint”.

A special Investigation Team has been set up by the Kolkata Police to probe the case and the CCTV footage have been collected from the ATM locations. Going by the footage so far, a couple of persons wearing masks were found in some of the clips.

Police seize Rs 5 crore in forex scam

The city crime branch, probing an illegal foreign exchange racket, on Monday seized around Rs 5 crore. Police said the amount was lying in various bank accounts of the main accused, Tanveer Shaikh, Faiyyaz Shaikh, Mohamed Shaikh, Parvez Khan, Sanjay Vaishnav and Imran Khan.
Police last week arrested three brothers and seven accomplices for cheating over 500 persons of over Rs 6 crore in the past one year in an online foreign exchange trading racket (Lured by ‘dollar returns’, 500 investors lose crores, TOI, July 27)).
Police arrested David Nadar, part of the fraudsters’ marketing team, on Monday. The accused set up a website, capitaltrade.com, and lured people into investing in foreign currency. Investors were contacted using voice over internet protocol (VOIP) from numbers registered in Sri Lanka. Once investors deposited the money, the accused would snap contact with them. The investors had no way to contact them as they made VOIP calls.

Rs 120-cr insurance fraud: Lookout notice issued against 7 accused

Kochi: The Crime Branch has issued a lookout notice against the seven accused in a case of fake health insurance scheme involving a whopping Rs 120 crore. The wanted men allegedly collected the amount from several people in all districts of the state by floating a company called Phenomenal healthcare services and running a money-chain operation before disappearing with the money.
The wanted men: Nandalal Kesar Singh, K O Rafael, T M S Nair, Sebastian Maliekkal, Binoy Rafael, Ranjan Chunnilal, K A Jiffry - accused in a fake health insurance scheme involving a whopping Rs 120 crore

Those named in the lookout notice are: K O Rafael, 67, of Koratty; Binoy Rafael, 40; K A Jiffry, 45, of Annamanada, T M S Nair, a resident of Maharashtra; Sebastian Maliekkal; Nandalal Kesar Singh, 51, and Ranjan Chunnilal, 58.

Their firm had promised health insurance coverage for nine years and return of twice the money deposited at the end of the ninth year. The police arrived at the estimated figure of Rs 120 crore based on the formal complaints they received. However, the actual number of victims of the fraud is much more, according to police officers.

Pune bank fraud: Out of Rs 94 crore, hackers transferred Rs 13.5 crore to Macau

Probe into the Cosmos Bank in Pune revealed that thehackers had transferred Rs 13.5 crore to Macau. It should be noted that Macau is known for being the top gambling hub.

“There were two types of fraudulent transactions carried out: One where cloned debit cards were used to withdraw Rs 80.5 crore, and the other in which a SWIFT transfer of Rs 13.5 crore was made from the Pune-based bank to an account in a Hong Kong-based bank. On tracking the second transfer, it came to light that the money was then transferred to the account of an investment banking company from where it made its way to Macau,” a senior police officer told the Indian Express.

The investigations also revealed that the hackers that were involved in the cyber attack had their own forums on the darknet.


“The way it works is that the fraudsters have their own forums on the darknet. They informed people that they would be carrying out an ATM cash-out attack. They would inform the members about the timing of the cash-out and provide the card details in exchange for a fee,” the officer further explained.

Earlier this month, cybercriminals used cloned debit cards to steal Rs 94.4 crore from a Pune-based cooperative bank after breaching its servers, in the second such attack on an Indian bank this year.

Cosmos Cooperative Bank was caught unawares during the theft between August 11 and August 13 as the hackers took control of its system and self-approved nearly 15,000 false transactions.

A total of 450 cloned international Visa and several RuPay debit cards were used in 28 countries, including 2,800 transactions in India. It is suspected that the hackers have links with Hong Kong.


The money that was transferred is mostly from the inter-bank settlement accounts, said Gokhale. "Our internal audit is on to find out the final figure of the amount." The fraud came to light on Monday when the payment gateways approached the bank seeking the money that it had cleared based on 'approvals'.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

British watchdog says cryptocurrency scams on the rise

Cryptocurrency scams are using images of celebrities and upmarket London addresses to hoodwink consumers into parting with cash, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether are not regulated in Britain, and the FCA said it has received a rising number of reports about investment scams that claim to offer high returns.

"UK consumers are being increasingly targeted by cryptocurrency-related investment scams," the FCA said in a statement.


"Cryptocurrency fraudsters tend to advertise on social media, often using the images of celebrities or well-known individuals to promote cryptocurrency investments."

The ads link to websites for investments either using cryptocurrencies or traditional cash.

"The firms operating the scams are usually based outside of the UK but will claim to have a UK presence, often a prestigious City of London address," the FCA said.

Given that cryptocurrencies are not regulated, consumers are unlikely to get their money back, and are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the watchdog said.

The Supreme Court of India had also refused to overturn a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ban on cryptocurrencies, making it impossible for virtual currency players to carry out transactions through Indian banking and payment channels.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, refused to give interim to relief to the RBI's directive prohibiting banks, financial institutions and other regulated institutions from providing any services related to virtual currencies.


Legal and tax experts believe that it will be quite difficult for cryptocurrency players to operate in the country after the RBI circular came into from July 6.

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