Bhubabaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police on Saturday arrested a man from Cuttack for his alleged involvement in Ponzi scheme scam of over Rs 1,000 crore spread over at least ten states.
EOW said in a statement that the accused, identified as Pratap Kumar Rout of 42 Mouza, Jhinkiria, was arrested from Cuttack following a complaint lodged by a cheated investor.
Complainant Bijay Kumar Panigrahy had alleged that he invested Rs 92,60,480/- in Hedgex Fund LLP, whose designated partners are Dinesh Kumar Jain and one Kuldeep Singh Panwar. He came to know about Hedgex Fund LLP from one Pratap Kumar Rout who induced him to invest his retirement amount in Hedgex Fund LLP to get monthly returns from 11% -18%. He was convinced by the accused Pratap that the said LLP is investing in Forex market and the same is personally verified by him. He was further assured by Pratap that it was not a money-rotation scheme like many others in the market. He made the first deposit by using the account numbers provided by Pratap. However, after few days, the company stopped functioning and his deposited amount was blocked. When the complainant contacted arrested accused Pratap, the latter kept on giving false assurances to return his money.
EOW said that Pratap acted as local coordinator and fund collector by operating multiple bank accounts (changing frequently) for the collection of funds. He also collected deposits in huge amounts in cash and through hawala agents also. Pratap even held many promotional meetings in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to promote Hedgex Fund. After taking deposit in crores, suddenly the LLP stopped functioning. After the closure of the LLP Hedgex Fund, Pratap assured depositors that he is in constant touch with Dinesh Kumar Jain, designated partner of the company to return the deposits of the depositors.
The modus operandi of the fraud is similar to any other Ponzi scheme floated in the market wherein initially, small periodic returns were paid out to depositors to build credibility and attract huge deposits. Subsequently, the operators abruptly shut down operations, deactivated communication channels, and became unreachable thereby misappropriating the depositor’s funds. In this case, depositors were repeatedly assured by the accused Pratap Kumar Rout that their money was safe and that normal functioning of the LLP would resume shortly.
Investigation made so far revealed that the company was registered with ROC, Goa in 2023. However, its depositors base spread to 10 states namely Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Odisha, involving more than three lakh depositors. The defrauded amount is believed to be more than Rs 1000 crore.
In Odisha, there are more than 12000 depositors and the defrauded amount is Rs 139 crores.
The Hedgex floated a number of sister concerns namely Kaushalaya Foundation, Lavya world, Frix Market Lavya International etc. within two years during 2023-2024 to defraud the depositors. The designated partners and other top leaders including the present arrested accused used multiple mule and third-party accounts to confuse the law enforcement agencies and to camouflage their involvement.
Hawala agents were engaged to collect crores of rupees in cash and the collected cash was handled by accused Pratap Kumar Rout. Many incriminating documents have been seized from the arrested man.
Further investigation in the case is in progress.