Once again QNet is in the news, all for wrong reasons. Recently, the Economic Offences shared that QNet leaders misled the Court by submitting a fake document along with their bail applications. And the same was denied by the police officer who signed or prepared the documents.
The F.I.R was registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED) upon the company for money laundering of 425 crores. The Economic Offences Wing (E.O.W) has told the session court that the document submitted by the Q-NET leader is deceptive and bogus.
E.O.W has also informed that Police Sub Inspector (PSI) involved in it as PSI was only the one to created the affidavit and submit it.However Pandu Kumar Rathod (PSI) has denied to accept any charge of creating affidavit and has also given a clean chit to himself saying “I state and declare before the court that the documents which were relied upon the applicants in their anticipatory bail applicants as the statement recorded by me and the report prepared by me are not the documents prepared by me and I have no knowledge regarding the matter”.
The accused’s name includes of seven people –The Former World Billiards champion Michael Ferreira, Srinavas Ra Vanka, Magarlal ViravaliBalaji, Malclm Nozer Desai, Navjyot Mahesh Das, Chinar Surendra Shinde and Mereilla Kumar Dutta.
From the past 2-3 years, a lot of my friends have asked about QNet and they want to know in detail. They want to know, whether it is a legitimate business in India or is it a scam. And the people who are asking them to join their QNet group, the minimum capital required to start the business is 1,20,000 INR, whereas I have heard that one could start with 30,000 INR as well. On contrary to that, on the company’s website, anyone can join free of cost.
And what I share with them:
QNet is known with many names, such as QNet ltd, or QuestNet or GoldQuest or Qi limited. Over the years they changed their product line with new company names, so that when you search about the company on search engines, then you won’t get much information on previous names but only about QNet.
QNet was first started in 1998 with the name GoldQuest and made numismatic coins, but later changed the name to QNet, when they faced accusation of being a pyramid and a money circulation scheme in India and also at other countries.
Vijay Eswaran, Qnet’s executive director, has faced arrest for fraud on an Interpol warrant in May 2007. Where later on, he was freed.
QNet product range: ENERGY, NUTRITION, PERSONAL CARE, LUXURY & COLLECTIBLES, ACCESSORIES, HOLIDAYS and EDUCATION.
Do read this notice: Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs: Link
Some excerpts
MATTERS FALLING UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF OTHER MINISTRIES I DEPARTMENTS. During the course of Inspection, it is found that the above-said company is running a multi-level marketing or product-based pyramid scheme business. This is a new version of the pyramid scheme in which the consumers are turned into distributors and the promoters are able to sell far more products by selling to distributors than they would be • selling directly to the consumers. The philosophy goes that it is easier to buy than to sell. If a person can be convinced that he will make money by buying products to qualify for commissions from sales by those he has recruited, the sale is an easy one. The products in these schemes have become merely a means of disguising or laundering investments in the pyramid schemes while the dynamics of the chain promotion. the system is essentially the same. In fact, money from sales must go through the company’s infrastructure, and only a portion of the payout is rebated to participants. But must of it goes to top-level Independent Representatives (IRs) and rest of the amount is spread amongst tens of thousands of e participants, most of whom loss money
From time to time, QNet got banned in many counties, such as:
Afghanistan (2008)
Australia.
Rwanda (2009)
Iran (2005)
Sri Lanka (2004)
USA & Canada (2008)
Syria (2009)
India (2010, as Gold Quest)
Nepal
Saudi Arabia
Turkey
It is difficult to distinguish between a legal and a fraud company. Unless MLM law is passed in India, it would be difficult to get the real picture. Same is the case with Qnet. They are already facing legal challenges in India.
QNet has been banned in almost 10-15 countries for various reasons. Some of the reasons were inferiour quality of the products, over rated products, while in some countries like Nepal all Direct Selling/MLM companies are banned, but mostly because it was considered to be a pyramid scheme and looked almost like the money circulating ponzi schemes.
However, it is still opetating in some European countries.
✔️ Is QNET banned in India?
There is no straight way to answer this question. Inorder to understand QNet’s position in India we need to understand a bit of its background. QNet operation started in India through their franchise called Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd and that time the laws on MLM were not clear. Mostly direct selling are laws are governed by the State Government and not by the Central Government. However, this menance of so called ponzi scheme reached to a boiling point where in the Central Government had issued guidelines for the Direct Selling Industry in India. Apart from this, recently many State Government have also taken proactive steps by enacting Direct Selling Guidelines and Laws.
Government of India’s Consumer Affair ministy has also initiated prosecution against M/s Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt. Ltd. under section 27 6B & 279(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961;
Over the years Qnet has been the center of many controversies, the most damaging being the alligation by Gurupreet Singh Anand.
✔️ How do I get my money back from QNET?
Once you have made a purchase for any product from Qnet refund can be processed within 30 days of purchase incase you have paid in INR and within 7 days of purchase if you have paid in USD.
You can call their Global support center at +603 7949 8288 (all languages) or email them at [email protected]
In case you don’t get a refund than file an FIR against the company with all the above documents and proofs. This process at last might help you to get invested money back from Qnet.
✔️ Is QNET registered with IDSA?
Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) is an independent, self-regulatory body for the direct selling industry in India. Currently , it has 21 members in India. QNet is not in the list of members.
First, you need to check the legal status of Qnet in your country. If it is operating under the guidelines of the direct selling industry and has not faced any legal hurdle then you can get started. Whereas in India, I think you should stay away from Qnet at the moment.
