Noida forex firm scams investors

Close on the heels of Gurgaon's Citibank fraud case, a scam running to about Rs 200 crore has come to haunt investors in Noida. Darpan Singh reports.

Close on the heels of Gurgaon's Citibank fraud case, a scam running to about Rs 200 crore has come to haunt investors in Noida.

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Employees of EndMark Forex Group, a global company providing foreign exchange trading services, have "deserted" their India office in Noida's Sector 62. The local office used to "seek investments" from people across cities, promising "hefty returns".

When payouts stopped and phone calls were not answered, a group of investors reached the office in Sector 62 on Monday night and found it locked. The investors' loss varies from Rs 30,000 to Rs 30 lakh.

About 100 of them have, so far, approached the police.

The company has its research centre in Houston, US; a training centre in London and a business development centre in Hong Kong.

SP (city) HN Singh said: "We're probing if the irregularities committed are limited to the India office or more people are involved in the fraud."

The police lodged an FIR against directors and main accused Mayank Gupta and Dipanshu Aanand, besides Ravindra, Neha Chauhan and Archana -- associated with promotional activities.

Singh said: "We are trying to contact the London office. Unless the accused is arrested, the exact amount of scam cannot be ascertained."

"The company claimed it provided excellent investment opportunities to retail and institutional investors. It claimed to provide 1% return every day on the invested amount up to 320 trading days. But it suddenly shut all communication lines and fled with the money," said a police officer probing the case.

The police said the directors had been running the company for the last several years.

"Accused Mayank Gupta, director of the company, used to lure investors promising heavy returns in foreign exchange trading. He had investors from all over the country. Crores of rupees of investors are involved in the trading," said SP (city) HN Singh.

Gupta had been running a high-profile network, dealing with multi-level marketing (MLM) that involves a chain process of making clients through a huge trap spread across the country, the police said.

Earlier, the office of EndMark Forex Services was located in Sector 18 but complaints of investors regarding low returns started pouring in, he shifted the office in Sector 62 in Noida.