Empower Network is an online MLM, which is conning people by selling online marketing products by promising high commissions for a monthly fee
Is there another ‘Speak Asia’ in the offing? Empower Network is luring thousands of people across the world under the pretext of selling online blogging platform and ‘the secret formula’ to get rich by doing online marketing work. (more…)
One more Indian CEO makes it big in the international arena. Asha Gupta, presently Managing Director, Tupperware India and Area Vice President, Tupperware Brands – Asia Pacific has been appointed as Group President, Asia Pacific with effect from January 1, 2014. She will now be responsible for driving the growth and expansion of the entire of Asia Pacific region..
After taking over Tupperware India in 2004, Gupta has won several awards and accolades, including the “50 most powerful women in Business by Fortune India Magazine”, and “Women Leadership Award by CMO Council Asia”, it said. Under her leadership, the Indian business has posted stellar growth and the brand Tupperware is now virtually a household name in India.
Meanwhile, the company said, Puneet Narula, the present Deputy Managing Director, has been appointed as Managing Director replacing Gupta. He has been associated with Tupperware seven years and has been working closely with Ms Gupta in the capacities of CFO and more recently as Deputy Managing Director. In 2011, he led entry of Tupperware in Bangladesh which is considered among the new emerging markets for Tupperware.
Narula has held various responsibilities in Tupperware, including as its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Tupperware, Narula worked at GlaxoSmithKline India for 10 years, the statement added.
A day after hundreds of duped depositors from different parts of the State staged a massive demonstration demanding refund of their money, Opposition Congress on Wednesday sought a clarification from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on his government’s plan to return money to the investors who had been cheated by chit fund companies.
The issue was raised in the State Assembly by Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh.Mr. Singh sought a clarification from the Chief Minister while pointing out that six months had already passed since the State government announced to make payment to the depositors within three months.
State government is not serious about return of money to the investors, says Opposition leader. Mr. Singh said the government was not clear on how many chit fund companies had cheated lakhs of depositors in the State.
Alleging that the Government was not clear on how many ponzi scheme companies had cheated depositors in the State, Earlier, the government put the number of such companies at 134, but it was now saying that there were only 84 of them, he added.
The Opposition legislators also raised the issue of distress sale of paddy in several districts of the State as the State government had not made adequate arrangements for procurement of paddy till date.
Nagpur: The bail application of Pallavi Joshi, Shreesurya group director and co-accused in the scam, was rejected by Nagpur District and Session Court on Friday. The bail plea was dismissed by Special judge CS Tarare after the prosecution as well as counsels for the investors persistently (more…)
The shares of Herbalife Ltd rose up to 7% on Friday. This has come as a surprise in spite of current attacks from its activist investors Bill Ackman about the nutrition firm being a pyramid scam.
A pyramid scam is defined as a scam wherein the company or members of the company promise its investors payment or services supposedly of value simply by adding other members into the scheme. (more…)
New Delhi: According to a business climate survey conducted by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India, though the temperament of Swedish companies to invest in India remains extravagant, 54 per cent of companies find Indian labour regulations problematic to their operation and growth. This was the sixth time, the survey was conducted and the results were announced at the Embassy of Sweden, New Delhi, on Friday, November 15. This survey aimed at understanding the operational problems of Swedish companies in India. BCS almost reached out to 157 companies in India and found that 54 per cent of companies find Indian labour regulations problematic to their operation and growth. (more…)
Mumbai: Have a glance of these three fraud cases registered with economic offence wing (EOW):
MMM India: Rs. 2,000 crores
SpeakAsia fraud: Rs. 2,276 crores
NSEL: Rs. 5,600 crores
Total pending cases with EOW involves Rs. 12,395 crores, and due to shortage of manpower these cases are struck in court proceedings. For its 11 units EOW has 76 police officers and 174 constables. An EOW officer stated “In a single case, we have to record the statement of hundreds of people (in ponzy schems/double the money scheme etc), making seizure, conducting raids, sending the evidence for forensic audit and analysis, etc. the staff shortage delays the investigation”. Each officer is currently handling 10 cases each.
It’s not that EOW has not reached the state law and judiciary department for this issue; in 2012 the city police commissioner had sent a proposal to the state Law and Judiciary department recommending setting up a special court to try the EOW cases. However, the proposal was lying with the state for over a year. Last month, a reminder has again been sent to the state about the recommendation.
Need is increasing:
An officer adds,” Now a day, people are falling prey to the ponzy schemes and have become greedy. They want their money to be doubled overnight and hence they invest randomly. We have found there are victims who have invested in three to four ‘double the money’ schemes at a time”, just for an example in SpeakAsia case, there were more than 24 lakhs investors. There is only one officer who is suffering to make ends meet and is juggling between filing charge sheet against more than one and half a dozen accused.
As the number of frauds is increasing there is greater need of officers to investigate the cases. “When it comes to bigger investigations where more manpower is required, we have to take help from sister agencies since our manpower is very less,” the officer added. There are over 400 cases which are still under the investigation.
How fraudulent schemes work:
A fraudulent company comes with a scheme. People are lured. The money collected is used to compensate the initial investors. As people start getting money, more people invest. As money is collected from new investors, commissions are paid from their kitty to those who joined earlier. The older investors start showing cheques they received to the new investors and prospective ones, boosting confidence in the scheme. Investors start getting friends and relatives into the scheme. Once a huge amount is collected, the founders shut shop and flee.
Some examples which are under probe:
Masood Ahmed | City Limousine | Promised investors 50% return per year
Ravindra and Vasuda Deshmukh | Aryarup Travel and Club Resort| Promised investors 86% return per year and commission if they brought in others
Sandeep Shukla | Aurum Realty, Yes Cube Infrastructure, Bristal Builders and Developers | Promised investors 75-100% return per year
MMM india case: In June this year, EOW registered a cheating and criminal conspiracy case against a firm, MMMindia for allegedly duping more than 70,000 people of nearly Rs 2,000 crore. The FIR names more than 17 people, including five foreigners, as accused. While the foreigners, all Russian nationals, include promoters Sergey Mavrodi, Alexei Muratov, Michel Glukhov and Kilin Adery, the other accused are Indian nationals. Mavrodi is a convict in Russia in a multi-level marketing fraud, the police said.
Speakasia fraud: The Company duped investors to the tune of Rs 2,276 crore. SpeakAsia had promised to pay Rs 52,000 as returns on successful completion of surveys in a year. The fee (or investment) for this was Rs 11,000. There are more than 24 lakh members/panelists for this firm.
So it’s apparent that the situation is acute and EOW is incapable to handle the number of cases it’s getting at the present condition, state is also aware of this but nothing is done yet. Common man is helpless; the best thing he can do is to not fall for schemes which offer to double their money with some magic in a short period of time.
Speaking about the SpeakAsia scam, Rajvardhan Sinha, Additional Commissioner – EOW, Mumbai Police, says, “We are confident of recovering overseas funds in the case.”
Watch as he also talks about EOW’s QNET investigation. “QNET masterminds change names after each investigation,” he tells Bloomberg TV India.
The Delhi Crime Branch Economic Offence Wing has apprehended one more primary accused in the Speak Asia rip-off.
Ram Niwas was picked up from Bangalore. The Crime Branch has already jailed Ram Niwas Pal, the co-mastermind of Speak Asia scam from the Bangalore flight terminal. His brother Ram Sumiran Pal was detained from Delhi five-days-ago.
Ram Niwas, an ex investment banker, was the one buying companies based abroad and making contacts to transfer cash through them. The 3rd partner Manoj Sharma is still at large. Till now 8 FIRs have actually been filed across India featuring Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh by the Enforcement Directorate.
The involvement of others is also being verified. The Mumbai EOW has found the path of over Rs 750 crore being transferred around numerous nations like Singapore, Dubai, Italy, UK, Brazil etc.
Two primary accused in the SpeakAsia fraud, Ram Sumiran Pal and his relative Satish Pal, were on Friday presented to the metropolitan magistrate’s court and remanded in police custody till December 3, 2013.
The two were arrested by the special team of Delhi police and later on handed to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police for further investigation.
Ram Sumiran, 38, is one of the alleged fraudster, who engineered the SpeakAsia scam, cheating more than 24 lakh investors in India. He was picked up from Dehra Dun and given leads resulted in the arrest of Satish, 29, who stayed in Najafgarh.
Both are prime accused in the case and were on the run for some time, said Pradeep Gharat, special public prosecutor.
The prosecution notified the court that the two possess properties worth crores of rupees in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. ”
“The properties owned by Ram Sumiran Pal and his cousin Satish Pal are out of proportion to their earnings and therefore needed to investigate thoroughly,” Gharat pointed out.