Hyderabad: Blinded by the prospect of raking in higher returns, investors of Falcon Invoice Discounting (FID) either failed to notice or just ignored the many red flags along the way in their journey with the peer-to-peer platform.
Investors TOI spoke to said Falcon was offering short-term deals ranging from 30 days to 180 days for amounts as low as Rs 25,000 to Rs 9 lakh at 11% to 22% or even over 24% for some deals via its app. Falcon also offered long-term deals of Rs 10 lakh at interest rates of around 22%, luring in many who were first reeled in by the hefty interest rates offered on shorter deals, to park bigger amounts of money.
Blindsided by greed, none of the investors seemed to question the fact that while they were depositing their money with Falcon, the purchaser services agreements being sent by the invoice discounting platform were on the Falcon letterhead and signed by Amardeep but in the name of another company — Capital Protection Force Pvt Ltd, a company registered with the Registrar of Companies, Hyderabad, and in which FID chairman Amardeep Kumar is a director.
“When we used to pay via the app, all the transactions showed the payments going to Falcon Worldline Mumbai and for the long-term deals the payments were made to the ICICI Bank account of Capital Protection Force Pvt Ltd. But when Falcon used to pay the money back, it used to come from Capital Protection Force accounts,” said a Bengaluru-based investor.
“Sometimes the thought that it was too good to be true did cross my mind, but the payments were coming on time every time, so I kept investing bigger and bigger amounts in the hope that I would exit after a year or two after I made enough to fulfil all my liabilities and obligations but got trapped,” rued another investor who invested heavily in the platform.
Another Mumbai-based investor TOI spoke to initially said she never read the agreement closely or thought there was anything amiss and ended up investing Rs 40 lakh after a friend referred her to the platform. A Delhi-based investor, who began investing in the platform just last year, also did not notice anything amiss with the purchaser services agreements.
Corporate lawyer Hirendernath, who read one of the agreements shared by a Falcon investor, termed it a dubious document that is invalid under the law. Expressing surprise that anyone would enter into such an agreement, he said: “This agreement is a sham and has absolutely no legal validity. It’s a meaningless document which cannot be enforced at all. It appears to be a Ponzi scheme.” MSID:: 118255283 413 |
