By Rishika Sadam, Praveen Paramasivam and Haripriya Suresh
HYDERABAD (Reuters) – Hundreds of buyers in India are scrambling to recoup almost $100 million after they have been caught in a Ponzi scheme that duped them into making short-term investments promising excessive returns, in keeping with a police assertion and a number of victims Reuters spoke to.
Indian police arrested two people on Saturday after a case was filed in opposition to Falcon Bill Discounting, which promised returns of as much as 22% by claiming to attach depositors with the likes of Amazon and biscuit maker Britannia.
Falcon collected 17 billion rupees (about $196 million) from almost 7,000 buyers since 2021 however has repaid solely half, in keeping with an announcement from police within the southern state of Telangana.
Ankit Bihani, a New Delhi-based jeweler, met with 50 different buyers final week to debate measures, together with authorized cures, to recoup the collective 500 million rupees they mentioned they’d misplaced.
“Most of them (buyers) acquired to know in regards to the investing platform by means of social media and invested in it,” Bihani informed Reuters.
Falcon used the cash from new buyers to pay out older ones and diverted the remaining funds to varied shell entities, the police mentioned. Authorities are looking for Amardeep Kumar, Falcon’s founder and the primary accused, a supply mentioned.
Nevertheless, among the victims that Reuters spoke to are left questioning if they are going to recoup the cash — whole life financial savings, in some circumstances — they entrusted to Falcon.
“It’s my hard-earned cash. We do not know when and the way will we get it again,” mentioned Roopesh Chauhan, a tech worker who misplaced 15 million rupees.
S. Smriti, an assistant professor, reached out to the police after dropping over 3 million rupees.
“The cash was all our financial savings,” mentioned Smriti.
Indian authorities have expressed issues over a current surge in complaints from individuals being duped by phoney funding schemes that depend on fraudulent apps, web sites and name centres to deceive unsuspecting buyers.
Britannia, Amazon and Falcon didn’t reply to requests for remark from Reuters despatched on Monday. ($1 = 86.8550 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad, Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai, Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; extra reporting by Manoj Kumar and Mayank Bhardwaj; Modifying by Savio D’Souza)
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