The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three persons in connection with the Rs 6,380 crore Ponzi scam involving Agri Gold Group of Companies, officials said.
The probe agency produced Avva Venkata Rama Rao, Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana Rao, and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad before the ED court in Hyderabad which granted 14 days of judicial custody to all the 3 accused.
The ED had initiated its investigation based on multiple FIRs lodged in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. The scam was allegedly perpetrated by Avva Venkata Rama Rao through Agri Gold Group of Companies.
Avva Venkata Rama Rao’s name had earlier cropped up in the Golden Forest CIS Fraud scheme. “Having learned the tricks of the trade in that scheme, Avva Venkata Rama Rao hatched a well-planned conspiracy and along with his seven brothers and other associates setting up more than 150 companies and started collecting deposits from the general public with a promise of providing developed plots.
Farmlands or withdrawal at a high rate of return on maturity,” said the ED. According to the probe agency, thousands of commission agents were engaged to lure people with various schemes for hefty commission and managed to collect Rs 6380 crore from 32,02,628 such investor accounts.
“In the end, the gullible investors neither got plots nor could recover their deposits,” said an officer. According to the financial probe agency, the modus operandi of the scheme of the Agri Gold Group Companies was that, they would lure the gullible public to join as depositors in their schemes and encourage them to pay the desired deposits either directly or through the agents under the pretext of real estate deal.
“These companies did not mention either the actual market value of the land or its location or its boundaries or survey numbers or the permissions required to be obtained for the layouts from the concerned authorities. They tried to color it as a real estate business, but in reality it was an unregulated unlicensed collective investment scheme,” added the ED.
Also Read:
Comments are closed.