A NATION-WIDE SCAM? Arrested COO Tarak Bajpai had served with the Indian Air Force as a commissioned officer and runs a commercial pilot training academy in Indore
Mateen Hafeez and Venugopal Pillai TNN
Mumbai/Indore:In an operation that unfolded in Indore, the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police arrested Tarak Bajpai, the chief operating officer of SpeakAsia—a Singapore-based pyramid-marketing company—in the wee hours of Friday for allegedly perpetrating a nationwide scam amounting to Rs 1,320 crore. Three other senior members of the company were also arrested but not the CEO who, the police say, is hiding in Dubai. The firm, which claims to have 12 lakh clients across the country, has also been accused of transferring more than Rs 700 crore to Singapore. The Singaporeregistered company’s chairperson is a Singaporean of Indian origin, Haren Kaur, and the CEO for the Indian operations, Manoj Kumar, is currently in Dubai. The firm functioned at many levels through its internet portal, speakasiaonline.com. Investors enrolled to become panellists for a fee of Rs 11,000, after which they were paid Rs 1,000 for every two survey forms they filled per week. SpeakAsia left clients’ e-wallets empty: Cops Police Claim Singapore-Based Firm May Have Duped 12 Lakh Indians Mumbai/Indore: Addressing the media on Friday, Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (Mumbai crime branch) said: “We have arrested SpeakAsia COO (India head) Tarak Bajpai (36) and his three colleagues—Rajeev Mehrotra, technical head for the portal, Shaikh Rais Latif (32), assistant for daily portal operations and in-charge of regular pop-ups, and Ravi Janakraj Khanna (44), finance accountant, for this fraud. The company had 150 franchises across the country and 18 in Maharashtra.” The Esplanade Court on Friday remanded all four accused in police custody till August 4. Roy said: “Each panellist would be given a password to login and two surveys a week to fill. For conducting one survey online, a panellist would be entitled to 10 points, which would be worth Rs 500. They were promised Rs 52,000 a year.” Initially, SpeakAsia claimed the surveys were conducted on behalf of clients that included top banks and multinational companies such as Nestle and ICICI. However, these firms have denied having any association with SpeakAsia. Later in May, as CID, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax started investigating the company and raided its offices and blocked its accounts, SpeakAsia allegedly retracted its associations with some of the MNCs it had mentioned. Roy said that panellists were given e-wallets to hold the points collected. They also promised that the points would be transferred to the investor’s bank account in the form of money or that a cheque would be issued to them. Investors could get points equivalent to Rs 1,000 for every new recruit. Bajpai, who is a resident of Indore, was arrested at his bungalow in 74 Vijay Nagar scheme, even as hundreds of local investors gathered to protest his innocence. A calm Bajpai told the media that he was going to Mumbai for a ‘minor interrogation’ and assured investors that their money was safe. The company has been advertising regularly in the mainstream media saying it is innocent of all the charges it has bee accused of.Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police (EOW), said that Bajpai was being questioned about the company’s financial transactions and the money transferred outside India. “He has been working with SpeakAsia for little more than a year and takes home a monthly salary of Rs 35,000, some shares and incentives.” said Sinha. The arrests were made after two Mumbai investors lodged a complaint with the EOW, while the FIR was lodged on July 28. The complainants claimed they had been cheated of Rs 5.43 lakh. “One of the complaint’s wallet was full of points, but no money had been transferred to his bank account. He was given any cheque either,” said Roy. In May, the IT had raided several offices of this firm and documents were seized. “Many of their bank accounts have been frozen and the IT is probing through what channel the money was transferred outside the country,” said police sources. The ED may invoke Prevention of Money Laundering Act in this case. Under mounting pressure, Bajpai in a seminar in June had said: “I am registering a website in India, and the Singapore account will be transferred to my Indian website.” MULTI-CRORE SCAM? THE COMPANY SpeakAsia is not registered in India, but in Singapore. Its chairperson is a Singaporean of Indian origin Haren Kaur. The CEO for the Indian operations, Manoj Kumar, is hiding in Dubai said the police. The company’s defence lawyer said Kumar has been in Dubai for the last 10 days ACCUSATIONS Investigators have accused Speak Asia of perpetrating a nation-wide scam amounting to Rs 1,320 crore The firm, which claims to have 12 lakh clients in India, has also been accused of transferring more than Rs 700 crore to Singapore ARRESTED • Tarak Bajpai (36), chief operating officer (right) • Rajeev Mehrotra, technical head for the portal • Shaikh Rais Latif (32) assistant for daily portal operations and in-charge of regular pop-ups • Ravi Janakraj Khanna (44), finance accountant THE COMPLAINANT Mumbai resident Navneet Khosla filed a complaint after he was allegedly duped of the Rs 2.40 lakh he had invested in the scheme. Khosla, the managing director of PAFIC Consultants, said that in February 17, 2011, two members from Speak Asia visited his house and told him about the scheme. He filed a complaint Mumbai Crime Branch’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) after his repeated calls for payment went unanswered.
SpeakAsia COO Tarak Bajpai being produced in the Esplanade Court in Mumbai on Friday. The company has been accused of not paying its 12 lakh members and transferring Rs 700 crore to Singapore
My clients were never issued summons before their arrest. Suddenly they are picked up at 3am as if they are hardened criminals Abad Ponda | DEFENCE ADVOCATE
The Times of India, July 30, 2011
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