MUMBAI: Nearly Rs 15 crore is lying in the bank account of the city police’s economic offences wing (EOW) as officials are awaiting victims of six Ponzi schemes to come forward and claim reimbursements. As some of these schemes date back almost two decades, many of those conned are either dead or untraceable or unaware of the refund scheme, said officials.

For two years, the EOW has been trying to trace more than 32,000 investors who lost almost Rs 460 crore to the six schemes and has managed to reimburse 8,446 people — about 25% — who approached the police and collected Rs 8.5 crore.


While the EOW has not yet managed to raise the entire Rs 460 crore that these investors collectively lost, it is in the process of doing so by selling properties of accused that were attached during the course of investigations.

The refund cell for these schemes was set up on May 31, 2017, at Byculla and was later shifted to Azad Maidan police station’s compound. The six Ponzi schemes for which refund process is underway were floated by M/s C U Marketing, M/s Green Agro, Kokan Park, Symataic Finance, M/s Medicare and Cosmos Publicity.

EOW’s Ponzi refund problem: Hundreds of victims are dead
Out of the six Ponzi schemes whose victims are eligible for refund, C U Marketing has the largest number of investors—over 29,000—but ironically, only 8,212 of them have turned up to claim their money so far, said an official.

“We have sent letters to all investors of these schemes (see graphic). However, we found that most have changed addresses. Many don’t know about the refund process and, in hundreds of cases, the investors have passed away,” he said.

The investors who lost money have to submit proof of their investment, the amount, and a cancelled cheque to the EOW so that the refund money can be deposited in their accounts. The refund exercise has its genesis in legal battles taken up by the investors, following which courts compiled a list of victims, finalised it and forwarded it to the police. The refund is being carried out as per this court-drafted list. Hence, if newcomers or nominees want to claim the reimbursement, they have to show their documents of investment and get names added to this court list. If anyone is found to forging papers to claim the reimbursements, an FIR can be registered against him/her.

A total of 32,559 investors duped by the six firms are entitled to get their money back in instalments as per court order. A woman who got her money back recently said, “The system should be faster. We have been waiting for our money for many years but we are getting back the investments only now, and that too only partial. We want the process to be faster.”

“The largest con was conducted by C U Marketing at Rs 450 crore. When the refund scheme began, the competent authority, a deputy collectorrank officer, who conducted auction of attached properties of the accused, transferred Rs 24 crore to the police for reimbursement,” said an officer. The sessions court had passed an order stating that no investor in the C U Marketing fraud should be given more than Rs 9,500 per head in its first refund instalment. “The order was meant to cover all victims. However, most of the people duped by C U have not turned up so far,” said the officer.

A hotel owned by the firm in Juhu too will be auctioned soon and this money will also be given to the police for refund. The refund operations are being carried out by assistant inspector K M Ghuge of the EOW.