Four persons have been held today for their alleged involvement in the multi-level marketing ‘Qnet’ case, police said.
The four persons, identified as V Bal Reddy, Gautam Desai, Dasari Nagaraju and Cheemakurti Manikanta, were arrested today and Rs 15 lakh, deposited in different bank accounts, were seized from them, district Police Commissioner A
B Venkateswara Rao said.
The accused were nabbed by Economic Offences wing of the Commissionarate and the key person involved in the alleged fraud, Gangadhar from Vijayawada, is absconding and is currently said to be in Dubai, the senior officer said.
The five persons were associated with multi-level international marketing firm Qnet, a company founded by one Vijay Eswaran, a Malaysian citizen based in Hong Kong, in 1998, where the company agents extracted huge money from people by offering them lucrative incentives, he said.
The company also operated in India with other names like ‘Qen’ and ‘Quest, police said.
Eswaran had appointed one Vihan Direct Selling, owned by Gangadhar, as the sole selling company in India, where the firm had assigned some agents to recruit salesmen under the direct selling system.
According to police, the agents had appointed 134 first level salesmen by collecting Rs 1,16,55,000 and another 13,400 second level salesmen were joined by the 134 sales persons.
In the meantime, one of the salesmen suspected company’s activities and lodged a complaint with the police and the four accused were arrested after investigations.
Rao said if necessary, a red corner notice will be issued against Gangadhar.
He said Qnet is facing many charges in the country and some of the cases against the company are pending in courts.
A decade back, the company was involved in a Rs 11 crore case of alleged fraud in Chennai. It has also been facing some cases in Mumbai, the officer said.