Pearls Group chief Bhangoo passes away
Bhangoo was arrested in 2016 after a case was made up by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Punjab Agro Company Limited (PACL), a subsidiary of the Pearls Group, and its chief (Bhangoo) in connection with a Ponzi scam involving over ₹49,100 crore, collected from 5.5 crore investors.
Nirmal Singh Bhangoo (70), a milkman from a non-descript Bela village in Ropar district of Punjab who ran a chit fund company and became multi-billionaire owner of 1.25 lakh acres of land in the country, is no more. Bhangoo passed away in New Delhi today. As per information, he was admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital after his health deteriorated in Tihar jail where he had been lodged for the past five years.
After having worked as an agent in Peerless, a chit fund company, he started his own company Pearls Green Forest (PGL) and never looked back, establishing a network in different cities of the country and foreign countries, including Australia.
Bhangoo was arrested in 2016 after a case was made up by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Punjab Agro Company Limited (PACL), a subsidiary of the Pearls Group, and its chief (Bhangoo) in connection with a Ponzi scam involving over ₹49,100 crore, collected from 5.5 crore investors.
The ED, which started the probe after lodging a first information report (FIR) in 2015 based on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) case, had in January attached Australia-based assets of the Pearls Group and Bhangoo worth ₹472 crore.
Bhangoo’s company, which sponsored Kabbadi matches organised during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government, faced questioning during the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) government for failing to pay back to the investors.
The CBI had arrested Bhangoo and his three colleagues in 2016 following allegations that they collected funds from investors in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and other states through Ponzi schemes in the name of real estate projects.
In the same year, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), as part of its recovery proceedings, attached all bank and demat accounts, mutual fund portfolios of the PACL and it eight directors and promoters. SEBI had initiated recovery proceedings after Pearls’ failure to comply with its order issued on 2014, directing the PACL and its directors and promoters to wind up the schemes and refund ₹49,100 crore to the investors within three months from the date of the order.
The Lodha Committee had been supervising the Supreme Court-ordered process of selling PACL’s assets across the country and refunding ₹49,100 crore collected from over 5.5 crore investors.
Bhangoo, his companies PACL and Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGFL), as well as his lakhs of commission agents were accused of cheating 5.5 crore investors on the pretext of sale and development of agriculture land.
Bhangoo and his companies had promised the investors that allotment would be done on their investment between 90 and 270 days and if not, handsome returns would be paid.