The ongoing CBI probe has revealed that the Pearls Group, that ran dubious chit fund schemes across the country, had 66 offices at upscale Connaught Place in the national Capital.
While 44 offices were located in Gopaldas building, six were at Antrix Bhavan, five at Statesman building and 11 at Indraprastha building. The probe has also revealed that the Group owned a 11.5-acre land at Rajokri besides another one acquired in the area from tainted Haryana leader Gopal Kanda, agency sources said.
The Group also owned 553 acres on the outskirts of the national Capital out of which 482 acres was being developed under the new land pooling policy of the Delhi Government. The land bank was held in a benami manner, the sources said.
The CBI had registered the case on February 19, 2014 under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act converting a Preliminary Enquiry registered earlier on the directions of the Supreme Court.
The revelations have come during questioning of Pearls Group CMD Nirmal Singh Bhangoo along with Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of PACl, Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED, who at present are under CBI custody.
The enquiry revealed prima-facie evidence that the Group company PACl raised investments by issuing bogus land allotment letters to induce the investors. It was revealed that when the said company, on being directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to wind up the scheme and refund to the investors, a similar fraudulent scheme was operated under the name of other/second private company.
Funds collected from new investors of this second company were used to repay the earlier investors of first private company to stave off criminal prosecution. Funds have been raised by the two companies through a vast network of lakhs of commission agents spread all over the country who were being paid hefty commissions for luring the investors.
The accused persons in the case, including the CEO Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and others, illegally collected huge funds amounting to the tune of `45,000 crore from 5.5 crore investors spread all over the country under the garb of sale and purchase of agricultural land and promise of high returns.
These schemes were running illegally and both the companies were allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities including forgery in their day-to-day operations.
A series of raids were conducted by the CBI during February, 2014 at the office premises & residences of Directors and other suspected places in Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, which led to recovery of huge records and data relating to deposits from public and their mis-utilisation and diversion of funds, besides other incriminating documents.
Investigation also revealed that the accused persons fraudulently diverted the alleged funds collected under the aegis of Jaipur-based private company for purported investment in Australian companies. So far 132.99 million Australian Dollar found to have been diverted to Australian companies.