Mumbai, Jan 2:
Police today issued lookout notices against former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira and four others in the Rs 425-crore scam allegedly spearheaded by a multi-level marketing firm for which nine persons have already been arrested.
Ferreira, 75, has been linked to QNet, the firm at the centre of the scam in which thousands of investors had been allegedly duped. Besides him, notices have been issued against QNET founder Vijay Eswaran and his three business associates.
The police action comes after they failed to appear before investigators for questioning.
“The lookout notices were issued against Ferreira, Eswaran, three business associates, including Dev Wadhwani and Sachin Gupta, in connection with the QNet case. We had summoned them for questioning but none of them turned up,” a senior police officer told PTI.
In the second week of December, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the police had served summons to Ferreira, directing him to appear before them and explain his association with the scam-hit company, in which he claimed to hold shares.
The four others, including Eswaran, an Indian origin Malaysian citizen, were also asked to appear for questioning, police added.
EOW has arrested nine team leaders of QNet so far for allegedly duping investors by selling products like magnetic disks, herbal products and holiday schemes through fraudulent practices. The scam amount has been pegged at Rs 425 crore.
QNet has also been accused of using the banned binary pyramid business model for their multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes to entice investors. The accused were charged with cheating and forgery under relevant sections of the Prize, Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.
The company has denied defrauding investors.
The lookout notice is a circular issued against a person when he/she is wanted by police either for questioning or for the purpose of arrest in any case.
It is circulated at all immigration checks at international borders (like airports/sea ports) and as soon as the person is spotted, the authorities concerned are notified.
The Malaysia-based MLM firm has denied any wrongdoing.
In response to allegations made against the company and its local franchisee, a company spokesperson said, “The situation surrounding QNet in India and in Mumbai particularly appears to be some form of orchestrated sustained attack on the company to undermine our reputation and prevent us from competing fairly and openly in India.”
“The manner in which an alleged unmerited claim of fraud, which itself has not and cannot be substantiated on the face of the FIR itself, has been used to make arrests and freeze assets, does not bear up to scrutiny.
“We are confident that as true facts emerge authorities will also see this clearly calculated attack on QNet and take appropriate action against those responsible for scheming this,” Ajay Chanam, the India-based spokesman, said in a statement here.
He said QNet was carrying out its own independent internal investigations to understand the circumstances and motivations behind this ‘corporate raid’. “We will take immediate and strong legal action against those who have sought to harm the company and its affiliates.”
Ferreira, who was abroad on December 17, had said he would appear before the investigators as soon as he returns to India. The former world billiards champion had also defended the controversial company and claimed it cheated no one.
Police today said they did not know if the Padma Bhushan awardee, who has rejected charges levelled against him, was still abroad or has returned home.
The winner of the World Amateur Billiards Championship had described as “outrageous, malicious and untruthful” the allegations against him of defrauding people through QNet.
Ferreira had earlier said he had no operational responsibility for setting up the company and was just a shareholder. (PTI)
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