More than IT industries, Bengaluru has become a valley for Ponzi Schemes, with multiple cases of such incidents reported in different parts of the city. The city police have arrested another gang for defrauding its investors to the tune of Rs 20 crore.
The police busted a three-member gang from UB City, where they were running the scam in a rental space by duping nearly 2,500 investors by promising them high returns in a very less span of time. 36-year-old Sunil Kumar Choudhary from Haryana, Rijesh P (36) and Rakesh KS (41), both hailing from Kannur district in Kerala were arrested by the city police.
The arrests were made after Sanjeev Kumar Dana, who works at a private firm, lodged a complaint on Monday (September 2) over the gang's operations after he understood that he was duped as he did not get the promised returns. The trio was operating under a fake investment company named WAM Services (OPC) Pvt Ltd, with its head office in Gurugram. The company offered several schemes that gave double or triple returns every week to lure in investors.
Like every Ponzi companies, WAM also had an elaborate plan to cash in their investors with investment schemes and gradually circulate the money from the new investor to the early investors. The investment plans were: If you invest Rs 25,000 in the company, you get Rs 1,250 per week for 20 weeks and the entire principal sum in the 21st week. "Similarly, weekly returns of Rs 2,500 were promised on investments of Rs 50,000 and Rs 5,000 on Rs 1 lakh with a similar assurance of the principal repayment," reports Deccan Herald.
With their contacts, the trio had lured many people from different parts of the country, mainly from Kerala. The court has remanded custody of the arrested people to the police for further investigation.
Even after several reports of such scams being reported widely in Bengaluru, people are still running after easy money, which actually leaves them with no money at all. With many examples like I Monetary Advisory (IMA), Injaz International, Aala Ventures, Ajmera, Aleef and Ambidant marketing, people are still willing to take risks and invest in fraudulent companies that are floated as investment firms.
