The Economic Offences Wing of Goa Police claims to have busted a Ponzi scheme that duped around 400 people by promising high returns and prizes to investors, offering to use their money to gamble in Goa-based casinos and return them the winnings.
Four men identified as alleged mastermind Dasarath Boora; Adi Ganesh, the official head of the company; their Goa agent Fakruddin; and information technology expert Sandeep have been arrested.
The suspects are from Suryapet and Nalgonda in Telangana and Hosur in Tamil Nadu who were earlier real estate agents. They had worked as agents in other Ponzi schemes in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra before they decided to start their own scheme, the police said.
Police are also on the lookout for their agents based in other parts of the country while also examining the role of one local staffer who was involved in their marketing operations in Goa.
According to Superintendent of Police Shobit Saksena, the four confessed to operating a Ponzi scheme under the guise of an online gateway to casinos in Goa. All their operations were carried out online through their website www.dream2casino.com
“Upon interrogation of the accused persons it was established that although they had fashioned their scheme as a scheme for investment in casino games, it was actually a money-circulating, multi-level marketing and Ponzi scheme where they were just transferring parts of funds received as investments from new customers to their old ones,” Saksena said.
{{/usCountry}}“Upon interrogation of the accused persons it was established that although they had fashioned their scheme as a scheme for investment in casino games, it was actually a money-circulating, multi-level marketing and Ponzi scheme where they were just transferring parts of funds received as investments from new customers to their old ones,” Saksena said.
{{/usCountry}}According to the officer, the men hatched a plan to exploit the unique and attractive casino tourism of Goa by offering people outside the state a chance to play and invest in the casinos. Besides high returns, the schemers also promised investors prizes like free entry to casinos in Goa, hotel stays and air tickets to Goa, iPhones, scooters, motorcycles and cars to existing investors for getting them new customers.
“As per their plan they were going to make investments for up to three months by when they had estimated they would have made up to Rs.5 crores and then would have simply shut shop and absconded,” Saksena said.
“They had over 400 customers across seven states including Goa who had invested over ₹1 crore in less than a month. Since the scheme was less than a month old, a major loss of hard-earned money of the people was prevented,” he added.