LUCKNOW: The ED today conducted searches in various Uttar Pradesh cities after it registered a money laundering case to probe the alleged Rs 3,700 ponzi scam case perpetrated by seeking fake social media ‘likes’ from lakhs of gullible investors by a Noida based firm.
The agency conducted raids at the business and residential premises of the owners of the said firm and others in Noida, Ghaziabad and Kanpur, officials said adding “incriminating documents”, that reveal assets worth crores of rupees of the accused, were seized.
They said the Enforcement Directorate’s zonal office here registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR of the UP police’s Special Task Force (STF) which unearthed the alleged illegal ponzi or multi-level marketing scam few days back.
The central probe agency said the fraudsters allegedly cheated about 6.5 lakh gullible investors of an estimated Rs 3,700 crore, a fraud many more times in value than the infamous Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal and Assam which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore.
The UP STF had arrested the owner of the company Anubhav Mittal, its CEO Sridhar and the technical head Mahesh on February 2.
“Modus Operandi of the accused according to their business scheme as alleged were that through their web portal they promoted a scheme where by liking the webpage, which were fictitiously shown associated to international social media groups like Google and Facebook, the users will earn money. (AGENCIES)
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