CBI arrests Ponzi firm chief, 3 others

The CBI on Friday arrested Pearls Group chairman-cum-managing director Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three other top officials of the group in connection with its investigations against them for allegedly duping investors through their Ponzi schemes by promising agricultural land to the depositors. The agency suspects that the accused allegedly raised investments worth Rs 45,000 crore from over 5.5 crore gullible investors.

Sources said that the arrests have been made in connection with the case against officials of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF. Talking to reporters here, CBI press information officer R.K. Gaur said, “Four executives of the firm were arrested on Friday after detailed questioning at the agency headquarters here.” Those who have been arrested are Mr Bhangoo, CMD of PGF Limited and former chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, Sukhdev Singh, MD and promoter-director of PACL, Gurmeet Singh, executive director (finance), and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in PGF/PACL.

“The case involves alleged collection of Rs 45,000 crore from about 5.5 crore investors all over the country. The case was registered under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC,” Mr Gaur said.

Sources in the agency said during questioning, they were giving inconsistent statements and stop-ped cooperating, which resulted in their arrest. “The agency sleuths froze more than 1,300 bank acco-unts of the accused and the firms during investigation. Besides, Rs 280 crores lying in different accounts of the accused firms were also frozen,” sources said. The CBI officials also recovered documents pertaining to more than 20,000 properties related to the firms during investigation, they added.

Sources said the agency’s investigations revealed that investors were issued bogus land allotment letters. In Ponzi schemes, returns are given to investors from the money collected from other depositors in a pyramid-like structure.

Sources said that during searches, it had recovered documents which show benami properties worth crores. It was revealed that PGF, on being directed by the Punjab and Haryana high court to wind up the scheme and refund money to investors, allegedly started a similar fraudulent scheme under the name of PACL with its office at Barakhamba Road in New Delhi.

The CBI mentioned it in its FIR also against the accused. It is further alleged that funds collected from new investors of PACL were used to repay the earlier investors of PGF to stave off criminal prosecution.