The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday conducted searches and survey operations at 15 locations in Mumbai and Nagpur and seized gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 5.51 crore along with Rs 1.21 crore in cash.The officials said that searches were conducted at the residences and offices of Pankaj Mehadia, Lokesh Jain, and Karthik Jain – the main accused in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case – among others.
“PMLA investigation revealed that Pankaj Mehadia along with other accomplices were running a Ponzi scheme and lured various investors by promising to give 12 per cent assured profit after deducting TDS on the investments made from the year 2004 to 2017.“Throughout the period of 2005 to 2016, with the malafide intentions of cheating and siphoning off investors’ money, the accused persons ran the Ponzi scheme giving assured returns to win over the investors and thus luring the investors to invest in larger amounts in the associated firms or companies and ultimately did not return the money,” said ED officials. The agency added that it has also managed to seize digital devices and various incriminating documents during the searches.