The bosses of the chit fund companies who dupe gullible investors in Odisha maintain a lavish lifestyle.
This is evident from the detection of an imported Jaguar car worth `1.33 crore in possession of Artha Tatwa (AT) Group CMD Pradip Sethi, who has been arrested and is in custody of the police on remand.
The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch also seized a BMW car from another chit fund firm Seashore Group CMD Prashant Das on Friday. The cost of the car was approximately Rs 50 lakh, Crime Branch officials said.
Ptadip Sethi, who has publicly admitted of cheating people and making his fortune through dubious money circulation schemes, bought the high-end vehicle (OR02BW0555) in December 2012. The Jaguar is a precious luxury car hardly found in a poor state like Odisha. Mostly, mining barons who make windfall profits could afford such cars.
Besides the new Jaguar, Sethi has about 25 cars, some of which he has distributed among the influential people who protected his illegal business, police sources said. The Commissionerate Police here has secured him on another four days’ remand in a bid to dig out more secrets relating to with the scam.
Sethi has alleged that a Minister, two MlAs and a still more prominent leader of the State blackmailed him and took huge amounts of money from him.
According to allegations, the AT Group cheated people across the State through 13 companies by offering schemes like Fixed Deposits, Recurring Deposits, Monthly Income Plans, Gold FD Plan and Trading Plan, claiming that the company is certified by Union and State Governments and the SEBI, RBI and other Financial Institutions (FIs).