Police say thousands of Indian investors lost $100 million in Ponzi scheme.
Rishika Sadam, Praveen Paramasivam and Haripriya Suresh
Hyderabad (Reuters) – Thousands of Indian investors have captured nearly $100 million in compensation in Ponzi schemes to put them in a fraud, according to police statements and multiple victims, the plan has put them in Promising promises high returns in short-term investments.
Indian police arrested two individuals on Saturday after filing a lawsuit against Falcon Invoice Discount, which promises to link returns to depositors like Amazon and cookie maker Britannia, which will receive up to 22% The reward.
According to a police statement from Telangana in the south, Falcon has collected nearly 7,000 investors (about $190 million) from nearly 7,000 investors, but has only paid back half of them.
New Delhi-based jeweler Ankit Bihani met with 50 other investors last week to discuss measures including legal remedies to make up for the lost Rs 50 crore they said.
“Most of them (investors) learned about the investment platform through social media and invested in it,” Bihani told Reuters.
Police said Falcon used the money from new investors to pay older investors and transferred the remaining funds to various Shell entities. Authorities are looking for Falcon’s founder and main defendant Amardeep Kumar, a source said.
But some of the victims who spoke to Reuters wondered if they would recover the money — in some cases, the entire life savings — they entrusted to the Falcon.
“It’s my hard money. We don’t know when and how to get it back,” said Roopesh Chauhan, a tech employee who lost Rs 15 million.
Assistant Professor S. Smriti contacted the police after losing more than Rs 3 million.
“This money is our entire savings,” Smriti said.
Indian authorities expressed concerns about complaints about people who have been cheated by fraudulent apps, websites and call centers recently.
Britannia, Amazon and Falcon did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Monday. ($1 = INR 86.8550)
(Report by Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad, Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai, Haripriya Suresh in Bangalore; Other reports by Manoj Kumar and Mayank Bhardwaj; Edited by Savio d’Souza)
