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.
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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 refundSalim 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.”