ONLINE SURVEY FRAUD
Mateen Hafeez TNN
Mumbai: Investigations into the SpeakAsia fraud have revealed that the online survey firm duped over 24 lakh investors across the country and it haditsheadofficein Mumbaiitself, and not Singapore, as reportedearlier. The police said the firm had transferred Rs 1,000 crore from India to Singapore. They said the fraud amount has crossed Rs 2,276 crore, but going by the number of investors, it could be over Rs14,000crore. Economic offences wing (EOW) additional commissioner of police Rajvardhan said, “We have seized two Mercedes cars belonging to its Indian chief, Manoj Kumar Sharma, currently in Dubai, and a panelist. We are trying to find out the banks where transactions took place. Our teams are also working on forensic accounting toestablishit.” Thefirm, floated in 2010, had been duping peopleby posing as asurvey company.If an investor (panelist) invested Rs 11,000, he would be given a personal account number of thecompany’s nowdefunctwebsite and a password. Each panelist was given two surveys to complete a week andby doing 100 a year, an investor was promisedRs52,000. The EOW had arrested chief operating officer, Tarak Bajpai, 36, and his colleagues Rajeev Mehrotra, technical head for the portal, Shaikh Rais Latif, 32, an assistant for portal operations and in-charge of regular pop-ups,RaviJanakrajKhanna, 44,finance accountant, andDeepankar Sarkar. They are in the Thane(rural) police’scustody. “We have found 60 accounts in variousbanks andfrozethem with court permission. These accounts contain over Rs 150 crore. The two cars seized are valued at Rs 1.30 crore. We are looking for the company’s properties and will attach them with court permission,” said an officer. The firm’s international chief, Harinder Kaur, is at large. “Redcorner notices againstseven office-bearers have been issued. We are coordinating with other police agencies to arrest them,” theofficer added. The police have found the flow of over Rs 1,000 crore to the UnitedBankof Singapore. “The firm has started a new web site, claiming the cops are allowing them to continue business. They are lying, to cheat investors. While people are coming forward, most don’t want to lodge complaints, hoping to get their money back,” saidtheofficer.The policesaid more arrests arelikely.
The Times of India, September 7, 2011
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