Mumbai police have booked 20 people including directors, top functionaries and staff of a Hyderabad-based private company for allegedly duping 184 people of Rs 45 crore through a Ponzi scheme.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) after conducting a preliminary inquiry on Monday registered an FIR in the matter and are further investigating it.
Police have booked Capital Protection Force Private Limited, its managing director Amardeep Singh, directors Anita Kumari, Pawan Odela and other executives and staff of the company.
They have been booked based on the complaint of Smita Niraj Dubey, 37, a businesswoman from Andheri who got to know about the “investment scheme” through mouth publicity.
As per Dubey’s complaint, the accused company and its top management and functionaries floated a scheme called Facon Invoice Discounting and induced people to invest money into it.
They promised investors returns by an interest rate ranging from 12-18% and accepted deposits from them, Dubey states in the FIR.
The accused company initially gave timely returns to the depositors encouraging them to invest more and also bring in more investors. They also ran a M-L-M (Multi Level Marketing) model business, Dubey said.
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As per the FIR, the accused company and its operators did not return money and the promised returns to the depositors in stipulated time and later ran away after closing the company.
The company defrauded 184 people from Mumbai to the tune of Rs 45.41 crore between July 2024 to January 2025, police said.
To lure investors, the accused firm claimed that it is providing invoice discounting services to reputed firms. The website they have created was later turned out to be bogus one, Dubey claimed.
The complainant came in contact with other victims of the accused company who have formed a WhatsApp group which has 1,025 members, the FIR stated.
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The EOW have booked the accused company operators under sections 316(2), 318(4), 61(2) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and 3 and 4 of Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act.
‘300 from state lost Rs 100 cr’
Dubey told The Indian Express that the accused company had started its operation in January 2020 and ran at least half a dozen fraud schemes offering high returns to the investors.
Among those who lost money in the fraud professionals like chartered accountants, doctors, lawyers and businessmen. Nearly 300 people have lost around Rs 100 crore in Maharashtra, suspects Dubey, who lost around Rs 50 lakh that she invested in the scheme.
Dubey also claimed that there are many NRIs who lost money to the fraud.
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Dubey also said that the accused company initially registered as a housekeeping service providing agency.
“The bank authorities were sleeping or they were hand in glove with the accused as they did not raise objection or flag it after seeing daily transactions of around Rs 5 crore in the accused of an housekeeping service providing agency providing maids and security guards,” the complainant said.
