Noida ponzi scam: Mastermind Anubhav Mittal's wife's house sealed by STF

Kanpur: The Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task force on Monday sealed the house of the Noida ponzi scam mastermind's wife Ayushi Mittal's house in Kanpur.

The UP Police on February 3, had busted an online fraud to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore, and arrested three persons alleged to have duped nearly 7 lakh people.

The arrested accused included the company owner Abhinav Mittal and his two accomplices -- Shridhar and Mahesh.

The task force had also sealed the bank accounts of the company, based in Sector 63 in Noida, which had a total balance of Rs 500 crore, the Special Task Force's ASP Amit Pathak had told newswire PTI.

Mittal, said to be the kingpin, holds a B.Tech degree and hails from Ghaziabad. Prasad is from Visakhapatnam and Dayal is from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

Launched in August 2015, the portal offered four different ‘packages' to the investors to earn money. After paying the money to the company, the investors were asked to like pages and click on the links they were sent.

The accused duped people on pretext of providing digital marketing solutions and had collected money from as many as seven lakh people under this ponzi scheme, he said.

Informing about the modus operandi of the fraudsters, Pathak said they used to get people to deposit of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 in exchange of linking them to social trade business portals.

Some of the members had complained against the company at Noida Phase 3 and Surajpur police stations in Greater Noida following which action was taken, the ASP said.

The STF has also informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Income Tax department and market regulator SEBI about the case.

To protect consumers from Ponzi frauds, the Centre, in September 2016, had issued model guidelines for states to regulate direct selling and multi-level marketing businesses while prohibiting pyramid structures as well as money circulation schemes.