The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday registered a money laundering case to probe the Rs3,700-crore Noida ponzi scam, after carrying out searches in multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh. Thereafter, the ED froze the bank accounts with deposits of Rs500 crore of the connected companies and promoters. The agency’s action came on the basis of the FIR lodged by the Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police, which unearthed the scam involving the Noida-based online marketing companies.
ED’s lucknow zonal office conducted the searches on five commercial and residential premises of the owners Anubhav Mittal and his wife Ayushi Agarwal in Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Noida. Sources said assets worth crores have been seized. The UP STF had arrested Anubhav, its CEO Sridhar and technical head Mahesh on February 2.
“Modus operandi of the accused according to their business scheme as alleged was that through their web portal they promoted a scheme whereby liking the webpage which were fictitiously shown associated to international social media groups like Google and Facebook the users will earn money.
The accused persons propagated a false story that the promotional webpages linked on these portals pay Rs6 per likes out of which they pay Rs5 to the investment/user.
“The accused also promoted four systematic investment plans offering various incentives depending upon the investment made by the user. The Multilevel Marketing and Ponzi Schemes where run by M/s Ablaze Info Solutions Private ltd, M/s Social Trade India Pvt ltd, M/s 3W Digital Pvt ltd, M/s Intmaart India Pvt ltd. All these companies are brainchild of one Anubhav Mittal, Ayushi Agarwal and others,” the ED said in a Press release issued in the evening. It estimates that the scam could be more than Rs3,700 crore and 6.5 lakh people have been cheated.
The ED said the documents recovered are likely to be useful in the recovery of the cheated funds. The ED will co-ordinate with the STF and the Income Tax department to unearth the proceeds of the crime generated in this case. The properties acquired out of proceeds of crime beyond the frozen amount of Rs500 crore in the accounts of the company too would be of help in giving back the investors their money. The ED has asked for details of transactions from the related banks which were used by the accused persons.
last week, the UP STF busted the scam perpetrated by the online firms which were rampantly collecting money from lakhs of people by promising big returns. The scheme was like multi-level marketing and the people who fell into this trap brought many others promising huge returns.
Mittal and other promoters were arrested by the STF during the raids at their office in Noida. Over 16,000 complaints have been registered with the police against the company and its promoters.