Ponzi fraud: EOW nabs firm head for duping investors

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch Tuesday arrested the director of a company for alleged involvement in a Rs 1.30 crore scam here.

The accused, Rabindra Kumar Swain, 45, belongs to Bhabarada village in Palasara Police Station limits in Ganjam district.

Swain is a Director of OSCAR Infra Development Limited, a concern of the OSCAR group of companies.

Sources said the EOW registered a case based on a complaint by one Jagadish Rout, a resident of Ganjam, who alleged that the company had collected huge deposits from the public across the country including Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra without any legal permission.

The company which had promised high interest rates on deposits misappropriated the money and duped investors.

During investigations, the sleuths found that the OSCAR group led by its Chairman and Managing Director, Pravash Chandra Rout, and other directors had collected Rs 1.30 crore from depositors through their offices all over Odisha and other states between 2006 and 2015.

They had promised much higher interest rates than that offered by prominent banks. However, the directors of the company never paid the depositors their money. Instead they diverted funds to the subsidiary companies of the OSCAR group like OSCAR Infra Development Limited, OSCAR Management Services Limited, OSCAR Real Estate Private Limited and OSCAR Finance Limited.

In due course the culprits closed their offices and fled with the money. Swain who was an accomplice of Prabhash was directly involved in all the illegal activities of the company.

Earlier, six directors of the OSCAR group and Prabhash were arrested. However, Swain was on the run. He was produced in court Tuesday and was sent to judicial custody.

 

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