Bhubaneswar: Arpan Patel and Adyajyoti Nayak, Directors of IAAVIC Pvt Ltd, were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar, from Mumbai on Thursday.
Patel and Nayak were produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Bandra, Mumbai, and are being brought to Odisha’s capital on transit remand. They will be produced before the designated court under OPID Act, Cuttack.
IAAVIC Pvt Ltd claims to be a stock market advisory company but allegedly runs Ponzi schemes and has cheated scores of investors to the tune of crores of rupees, the EOW said in a press release.
The accused were living in a rented house in Khar area of Mumbai. During search, many incriminating documents, costly cellphones, laptops, hard discs and Rs 90,000 cash were seized from their house.
They were arrested following investigations into a complaint lodged by one Swadhin Kumar Sahoo of Binjharpur in Odisha’s Jajpur. Sahoo alleged that Patel and Nayak cheated him and other investors of crores of rupees promising high returns.
Patel and Nayak launched their website ‘www.iaavic.com’ during 2020-21 and tried to attract gullible depositors through YouTube videos, the EOW said. The company claimed to be a stock advisory firm.
In the YouTube videos, documents like PAN card, ISO certificate, ROC registration etc were displayed to gain the trust of investors.
The accused also issued login ID and passwords to the investors as well as provided a toll free number 1800-103-0334, the EOW said.
Sahoo deposited Rs 15 lakh in the company’s account in instalments starting from July 2021.
The company has allegedly collected more than Rs 5 crore from as many as 400 investors in Odisha alone and cheated them subsequently.
The EOW probe found that the accused allegedly cheated investors to the tune of crores from Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, besides Odisha.
Investors who have been cheated can contact the Investigating Officer of this case on 9437736412, the EOW release said.
According to the EOW, the company is neither a share broker/sub-broker in any stock exchange in India nor authorised by stock market regulating agencies like SEBI to carry out such business.
