New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 261 crore in connection with its money laundering probe against a Haryana-based multi-level marketing group that allegedly perpetrated Ponzi schemes and cheated investors, officials here said on Saturday.
The attached properties include residential plots, agricultural land, and residential units belonging to Hisar-based Future Maker Life Care Pvt Ltd and its two Directors Radheyshyam and Bansilal, their family members and associates.
The 16 immovable properties that have been attached under provisions of the PMLA are located in Hisar, Adampur, Kulam, Delhi and Chandigarh apart from bank balances worth Rs 252 crore held in 34 accounts. The total value of the attachment is Rs 261 crore, the ED said.
The financial probe agency said it filed a PMLA case in March this year after taking cognizance of FIRs registered against the group by the Telangana police for cheating the common public by propagating a false theme of "a life turning opportunity to earn an income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 10 lakhs per month".
The ED said the group invited gullible people to become members of their Ponzi pyramid scheme "in the guise of" multi-level marketing by selling products like suit length and edible items. The agency alleged funds were fraudulently collected from subscribers as a deposit towards membership in the scheme through a chain of agents spread across India.
These deposits collected through the schemes were illegally diverted into the personal accounts of the directors, their family members and other associates and even to other shell companies incorporated by the two directors, the ED said.
"They also cheated the public by falsely claiming that their fraud pyramid scheme was a legitimate direct selling network scheme by introducing sub-standard products like cheap suit lengths and supplements," the agency said.
The ED's probe revealed that the company had illegally collected around Rs 2,950 crore from lakhs of members and the same has been identified as the proceeds of crime in this case, it said.