Borivli Ponzi scam: More than 2 lakh people invested over Rs 150 crore

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Tuesday took over the investigation in the Ponzi schemes run by Borivli-based Kaak Economic Marketing Pvt Ltd, after it was found that the company cheated lakhs. According to data recovered so far, Kaak cheated over 2 lakh people of more than Rs 150 crore.

During the initial probe, police had found that the company cheated more than 25,000 people over two years by offering lucrative returns on their investment.

Police sources said that during the raid at the company's office, they seized all the computers and collected data from them as well as servers and cloud. According to the data collected so far, names of over 2 lakh people have emerged and the company made more than Rs 150 crore by swindling its investors, they added.

Kaak Economic Marketing office at Borivli. Pic/Anurag Ahire

"Kishore Kakde, the accused behind the Ponzi schemes, was a person with political reach, so all the work was done in a very secretive manner during the raid.

There was every possibility that he might abscond or delete the data as soon as he came to know about the case," said an officer.

Kakde was present during the raid, following which he was taken into custody.

"The amount cheated from people may increase. The victims are mostly poor daily wage labourers who had invested in the company for ration," the officer added.

"This is a big scam and needs to be investigated thoroughly by experts. On the instructions of higher-up officers, this case has been transferred to the EOW," said senior inspector Ninad Sawant, Borivli police station.

"We have handed over all the seized data and other records and documents of Kaak along with the accused to the EOW," he added.

The scam came to light when a senior citizen recently approached the police, saying he had invested R16 lakh in Kaak a couple of years back and when he went to withdraw his money after maturity, the company did not pay him.

Sources said that they were not getting many complaints in the beginning, as most victims were ready to compromise with the accused.

19 Feb
Day Kishore Kakde was arrested in the case