The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 299.99 crore of Nowhera Shaik of Heera Group of Companies and others spread across multiple states under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act in a ponzi scam case.
The attached assets consisting of 96 immovable properties located in Telangana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh worth Rs 277.29 crore in the form of agricultural lands, commercial plots, residential buildings, commercial complexes and balances in bank accounts worth Rs 22.69 crore.
ED initiated investigations under PMLA on the basis of FIRs registered by Central Crime Station, Hyderabad, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Police against Shaik and others on the allegation of illegally collecting deposits from lacs of investors under the guise of high returns. There are Multiple FIRs registered across the country against Heera Group of Companies, the ED said.
The ED probe revealed that Shaik incorporated multiple companies under Heera Group of Companies and collected an amount of approximately Rs 5,600 crore as unauthorized deposits from around 1,72,000 investors across the country by engaging a network of marketing executives and direct selling agents with a false promise of paying high rate of returns to the tune of three per cent per month (36 per cent per annum)
Shaik floated multiple schemes and extensively advertised the schemes to lure the victims. She started 24 firms/entities under Heera Group and 182 bank accounts were opened in different banks in different parts of the countries in the name of these 24 entities. Further 10 bank accounts were also opened in foreign countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia for collecting these deposits, the ED said in a statement.
Shaik does not possess any valid permission either under the Banking Regulation Act, Companies Act, RBI Act or from any other government agency such as SEBI for collecting deposits. She started Gold, Food & Textile trading businesses only to create the impression that she earning legitimate profits, but in reality, the payouts to the new members were simply being funded from the cash flows generated from new members/investments. The volume of business in her Gold, Textile & Food marts was miniscule and not sufficient to justify the high returns promised by her, the agency said.
Shaik along with her family members and close associates diverted the depositors’ money to their personal accounts and amassed huge movable and immovable assets for wrongful personal gain, the agency added.
