Hundreds of traders in India are scrambling to recoup almost ₹870 crore ($100 million) after they have been caught in a Ponzi scheme that duped them into making short-term investments promising excessive returns, in line with a police assertion and a number of victims Reuters spoke to.
Consultant Picture(Bloomberg)
Telangana police arrested two people on Saturday after a case was filed towards 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 ₹1,700 crore (about $196 million) from almost 7,000 traders since 2021 however has repaid solely half, in line with an announcement from police within the southern state of Telangana.
Ankit Bihani, a New Delhi-based jeweler, met with 50 different traders final week to debate measures, together with authorized cures, to recoup the collective ₹50 crore they mentioned that they had misplaced.
“Most of them (investors) got to know about the investing platform through social media and invested in it,” Bihani advised Reuters.
Falcon used the cash from new traders 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.
Nonetheless, among the victims that Reuters spoke to are left questioning if they’ll recoup the cash — total life financial savings, in some circumstances — they entrusted to Falcon.
“It is my hard-earned money. We don’t know when and how will we get it back,” mentioned Roopesh Chauhan, a tech worker who misplaced ₹1.5 crore.
S. Smriti, an assistant professor, reached out to the police after dropping over ₹30 lakh.
“The money was all our 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 traders.