Four directors of a wealth management firm who were wanted for allegedly cheating nearly a hundred investors by promising them high returns have been arrested by the Tilak Nagar Police. According to the police, the accused shut down their firm, IQRA Wealth Management, in 2020 after starting a Ponzi scam.
The firm opened an office in Jayanagar in 2017, and promised high returns on investments. They got investments of ₹4.21 crore from 91 investors, of which they repaid ₹2.31 crore as returns till September 2020, after which they shut down operations, preliminary investigations have revealed.
The police registered a case and served a notice to all investors as per the firm’s books to lodge a complaint, if they were cheated. To date, 21 persons have lodged complaints for claims amounting to ₹2.49 crore, sources said. The firm's directors had given ₹1 crore to a stock broker, who has been summoned, to recover the money.
Unemployed youths cheated
In another case, city police have busted a fake firm that cheated unemployed youths promising them work-from-home jobs, and using identity proofs submitted to open shell companies.
The police have arrested two men who hail from Tamil Nadu and were allegedly running the firm in Bengaluru. “The police have frozen several accounts of the firm, which has a total of ₹3.5 Crore in them,” sources said.
The owners ran advertisements on the internet, newspapers and even circulated messages on social media for work-from-home jobs. When people responded, they were asked to submit details of their Aadhaar cards and other identity documents along with a registration fee. After collecting the money, the duo cut off connection. “The documents that the aspirants submitted were further misused to open shell companies and dubious transactions done in their names,” said the police, adding that investigations are ongoing.
