Consultancy firm dupes over 3,000 investors of ₹100 cr, two partners arrested

Mumbai police arrested two partners of Moneyedge Group for cheating 3,000 investors of ₹100 crore; two more partners are being sought.

MUMBAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has arrested two partners of a Mulund-based financial consultancy firm for allegedly cheating more than 3,000 investors to the tune of ₹100 crore. It is looking for two more partners, including a woman who took voluntary retirement from the Indian Postal Service to join the alleged accused.

The chairman of Moneyedge Hariprasad Venugopal

The police have registered a case against the Moneyedge Group of Companies, which operates several sub-companies like Moneyedge Financial Corp, Moneyedge Investments, Moneyedge Realtors and Moneyedge Capital services. “An investor called Rahul Podtar, who invested ₹2.80 crore along with his family members since January 2022, filed an FIR,” said a police officer in the Shares Unit of the EOW. The other 100 investors, who approached the police, were added to the complaint.

Pranav Raorane was roped in as a partner by the Moneyedge chairman Hariprasad Venugopal

“The company has been operational since 2013, and was started by Rajeev Jadhav, Priya Prabhu and Hariprasad Venugopal, who later took on Pranav Raorane as a partner,” said the police officer. “They told people that they did portfolio management services, investing money in stock markets and commodities, and promised a high interest rate of 2% per month.”

The police officer said that Prabhu used to work in the Indian Postal Department, and had several investors with her, whom she brought to Moneyedge. “The partners also had several distributors who brought investments to the company and were handsomely rewarded for this,” the officer added.

In May 2024, the company stopped paying the two per cent monthly interest. After investors started gathering outside their offices, they kept promising that they would start paying the interest again.

Rajeev and Hariprasad used to work with the same financial corporation earlier, and later resigned and launched the company with several others, including Prabhu and Raorane. “Raorane was hired, as he was an engineer and a Mulund local,” said the police officer. “They wanted to invest the money in real estate and needed him for this. However, there were disputes between them, due to which they stopped paying interest to investors.”

The police have registered a case under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants, bankers, merchants), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and another case under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act. They have been granted custody of the accused till January 22.