November 14, 2012
An Indian couple tricked 200,000 investors into a scam that cost them more than $95 million. The couple acquired over 12 properties across India with their fraudulent earnings.
November 14, 2012
An Indian couple tricked 200,000 investors into a scam that cost them more than $95 million. The couple acquired over 12 properties across India with their fraudulent earnings.
A married couple of Indian con-artists allegedly fooled 200,000 investors to part with more than $95 million by promising to pay them 20 percent interest every month, in one of the country's biggest ever frauds.
Ulhas and Raksha Khaire from Nagpur in Maharashtra allegedly mastered a series of disguises and occasionally put on or lost weight to change their appearance as they made a two year sweep of India separating gullible investors from their savings.
According to detectives, Ulhas, 32, and Raksha, 30, allegedly used 12 different aliases, 94 bank accounts, a network of agents throughout India and staged conferences at hotels to lure 'investors' to pledge at least 10,000 Rupees ($181). In return they promised they would pay 20 per cent every month for six months and then return the amount they invested in full in the seventh month. But while they paid out the interest, they fled when the capital repayments were due.
“Their scheme to induce the public at large was quite elaborate – with conferences and the distribution of attractive brochures at five-star hotels all over the country. They had multiple agents across the country who mobilized funds on their behalf,” Sandeep Goel, joint commissioner of police told The Hindustan Times.
“Investigations revealed 94 accounts, spread over 20-odd banks, having been opened and being operated by them in at least 13 different names and entities in Delhi and beyond.”
As their alleged fraud spree continued they supposedly amassed a multi-million pound property empire with 12 homes in Delhi, Alwar in Rajasthan, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and a villa in Goa. They acquired a fleet of flash cars, including a Mercedes, a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Mitsubishi Pajero.
Detectives claim their scheme flourished after they established the company Stock Guru India, but did not register it with India's regulatory authorities. It was only after complaints started flooding in last year that the scale of their alleged frauds emerged. They said they uncovered a plot in Dehra Dun dating back to 2004 when Ulhas opened a fake psychotherapy college, quickly followed by construction frauds in Nagpur, Maharashtra, a series of credit card scams in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2006, Bangalore and Bhubaneswar in 2007 and finally the creation of Stock Guru India in Delhi in 2009.
Police began trailing the couple in 2011 from Dehra Dun to Alwar in Rajasthan, down to Nagpur in Maharashtrra and Goa before finally catching them in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra last weekend.
Courtesy: Telegraph
