Over 70,000 duped of Rs 2,000 crore in Ponzi scheme
MUMBAI: The economic offences wing (EOW) registered a cheating and criminal conspiracy case against a firm, MMMindia— also known as triple M for allegedly duping more than 70,000 people of nearly Rs 2,000 crore.
The EOW registered a case on Monday after a four-month-long probe. 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.
In May, the Assam police had arrested Muratov, Adery and their three Indian accomplices. The EOW has also obtained a transfer warrant for their custody. A police team is likely to leave for Assam on Tuesday. Look-out notices too have been issued at airports across India.
On March 18, TOI had reported that the EOW was probing a multi-level marketing scheme that promised unrealistic returns to investors.
The complainant, a police officer, stated in the FIR, "Investors and consumers' guidance society, Mumbai, complained that a Ponzi scheme had been floated on the website mmmindia.in. While going through the website, I noticed that this company is not registered at ROC Mumbai or as Non Banking Financial Company at RBI. The domain address of the website showed its server in Russia. An email has been forwarded to the administrator to find out the details of the domain registrar."
