HYDERABAD: Five days into probing the Falcon Invoice Discounting (FID) fraud, where the company defaulted on payment worth crores to investors, police have found that the invoices cited to raise funds were allegedly fake. While the accused floated deals on their app, police investigation has found that most were fake and the accused illegally used the names of prominent brands.
“The accused launched a mobile application and a website claiming to be an Invoice Discounting Platform as a legitimate peer-to-peer invoice discounting service. They claimed to connect depositors with reputed companies such as Britannia, Amazon, and Godrej, while in reality, they fabricated vendor profiles and created fake deals to project authenticity,” said K Prasad, deputy commissioner of police, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Cyberabad police.
The EOW arrested the director of FID, Nalluri Kavya, on Sunday, a day after nabbing the company’s business head, Pavan Kumar Odela. Pegging the quantum of fraud to Rs 850 crore, the police said it defrauded as many as 6,979 victims. The accused collected Rs 1,700 crore from investors of which they repaid Rs 850 crore, they added.
“They were involved in a large-scale financial fraud orchestrated through FID and its associated entities. The primary accused, managing director Amardeep Kumar, along with chief operating officer Aryan Singh and chief executive officer (CEO) Yogender Singh, lured depositors by promising high returns on short-term deposits under the guise of invoice discounting,” Prasad said.
“The funds collected were diverted into various shell companies. By Jan 15, the scheme collapsed, and they failed to provide the promised returns, leading to the office being shut down and prompting depositors to file complaints with the police,” the police added.
The accused were previously involved in a criminal case registered in Chevella, where victims were duped in a multi-level marketing scheme.
Currently, Amardeep Kumar, Aryan Singh, and another accused Sandeep, are holed up in Dubai.
