Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigation into a ponzi scam has revealed that the fraudsters had allegedly defaulted on the payments and then diverted the investors’ money. The agency has taken transactions worth ₹150 crore under its scanner on the suspicion that they are connected to the allegedly siphoned-off investors’ funds, ED sources said.
Search and survey operations at 15 locations
The ED also suspects that most of these transactions were allegedly not backed by genuine business deals and they were in the nature of accommodation entries (bringing back unaccounted income into books of account). On March 3, the agency had carried out search and survey operations at 15 locations in Mumbai and Nagpur, which are linked to the alleged investment fraud of Pankaj Mehadiya and others, an ED official said.
‘‘Searches were conducted at the residences and offices of Mehadiya, Lokesh Jain and Kartik Jain, who are the main accused of this scam and also on the office and residential premises of the main beneficiaries,’’ the official said. The ED searches led to the seizure of gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹5.51 crore, ₹1.21 crore cash, digital devices and various incriminating documents.
Investors were promised 12% profit
The ED investigation revealed that Mehadiya and his accomplices were allegedly running a Ponzi scheme which lured various investors by promising them a 12% assured profit after deducting TDS (Tax Deducted at the Source) on the investments. The scheme was in operation between 2004 to 2017, the ED said.
‘‘Throughout the period of 2005 to 2016, with the malafide intention of cheating and siphoning off the investors’ money, the accused people ran the ponzi scheme giving assured returns,’’ the agency official said. This was to win the investors' confidence and thus continue luring the investors to invest in larger amounts, the official added.
‘‘In order to divert the investors’ money and to give the consequent transactions a tinge of legitimacy, transactions worth more than ₹150 crore were affected in the bank accounts,’’ the official said. ‘‘It is suspected that most of these transactions are not backed by genuine business deals and are in the nature of accommodation entries,’’ he said.
The ED initiated its probe on the basis of a first information report registered at Nagpur’s Sitabuldi police station.
