The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday conducted searches in various Uttar Pradesh cities after it registered a money laundering case to probe the alleged Rs 3,700 ponzi scam case perpetrated by seeking fake social media 'likes' from lakhs of investors by a Noida based firm.
The agency conducted raids at the business and residential premises of the owners of the said firm and others in Noida, Ghaziabad and Kanpur. Officials added they have procured “incriminating documents” that reveal assets worth crores of rupees of the accused.
The accused Anubhav Mittal’s wife Ayushi Mittal’s house has been sealed by the state’s Special Task Force (STF) on Monday as part of the probe.
The central probe agency said the fraudsters allegedly cheated about 6.5 lakh investors of an estimated Rs 3,700 crore.
Confused? Here’s How the Scheme Worked
The ponzi scam was allegedly being run by Anubhav Mittal, who is the founder of a social media exchange called SocialTrade.biz, which asked users to sign up and pay Rs 5,750. The company paid them cash for clicking on links that were flashed each day.
"The Modus Operandi of the accused according to their business scheme as alleged were that, through their web portal they promoted a scheme where by liking the webpage, which were fictitiously shown to be associated to international social media groups like Google and Facebook, the users will earn money.”
"The accused persons propagated a false story that the promotional web pages linked on these international social media portals pay Rs 6 per likes out of which they pay Rs 5 to the investment/user," the agency said.
The ED said the accused also “promoted four systematic investment plans offering various incentives depending upon the investment made by the user.”
“The multi-level marketing and ponzi schemes were run by Ms Ablaze Info Solutions Private Ltd, Ms Social Trade India Pvt Ltd, Ms 3W Digital Pvt Ltd and Ms Intmaart India Pvt Ltd,” it said.
The agency added all these firms were the “brain child” of Mittal and others.
Mittal, his partner Shridhar Prasad, and aide Mahesh Dayal were arrested on 2 February and are now in judicial custody. Three FIRs have been filed in the case.
Investors Demand Their Money Back
Several people who had invested in the company visited its office in Sector 63 on Sunday, demanding their money back.
They also had a minor scuffle with the policemen when they forcefully tried to enter the office permises, forcing the police to used mild force to control the mob, a police official said.
As the news of fraud and arrest spread through the newspapers and television channels, more investors who had invested lakhs rushed to the company to get their money back.
According to an investigating officer, the people who were allegedly duped might get back part of the money they had invested in the scheme.
This Scheme Bigger Than Saradha Scam?
The online ponzi scheme, at Rs 3,700 crore, is bigger than the infamous Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal and Assam, the special task force has said, saying it is a fraud of many more times in value than Saradha, which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore.
Investors are of the opinion that if Social Trade – run by 26-year-old Mittal – continued to spend as quickly as it did, it could have touched Rs 10,000 crore. In comparison, the alleged chit fund involving the Saradha Group was reported to be worth Rs 2,460 crore.
(With inputs from The Times of India and Hindustan Times.)
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