Former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira on Friday surrendered before a sessions court for his involvement in the multi-crore QNet scam.
Former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira on Friday surrendered before a sessions court for his involvement in the multi-crore QNet scam. The judge remanded him to police custody till October 13.
Ferreira, along with others, is facing charges of money-laundering in the QNet scam. The prosecution alleged that the accused got people to become members of their company by purchasing their products online. These people were then asked to enrol more members in return for a substantial commission. Economic Offences Wing (EOW) court judge D.P. Surana remanded the accused to police custody after they surrendered before the court.
Post lunch, Ferreira’s counsel, Amit Desai, argued that there was no need to remand his client to police custody. But special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said that custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary to find out the “destination” of the laundered money. Advocate Gharat argued that Ferreira was an 80-per cent shareholder in a Qnet franchise, which was a ponzi scheme under which the accused persuaded people to pay anything between Rs 30,000 to Rs 7.5 lakh. He claimed that investors did not get promised returns and ended up buying cheap, fake products.
Along with Ferreira, Srinivas Rao Vanka and Magaral Veervalli Balaji, the directors of Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd, and Malcolm Nozer Desai, too, surrendered before the court and were remanded to police custody.
