DELHI: The Special Task Force (STF) team on Monday questioned the staff of Hotel
Crowne Plaza
in Greater Noida where
Ponzi scam
kingpin Anubhav Mittal had organised a party and
invited actor Sunny Leone for the launch of an e-commerce portal. The programme was organised on November 29 last year.
Raj Kumar Mishra, DSP of STF, said, "The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes Act, 1978 prohibits promotion of any such scheme. We have got evidence and photos of the actor in the promotional event. She may be questioned if required during the investigation," he said.
Photos have surfaced of Mittal with Sunny and actress Ameesha Patel at an event but that one, police said, was of a birthday party, an event that did not concern the probe.
Accused of swindling Rs 3,700 crore from 6.50 lakh investors,
Anubhav Mittal offered money to individuals for liking, increasing traction and promoting certain webpages over the Internet. To start making Rs 5 per like, interested internet users were asked to pay up subscription fee which ranged between Rs 5,750 and Rs 57,500.
As the amount of money defrauded ran into hundreds of crores, ED's Lucknow zonal office started conducting probes having registered a case against the firm under Prevention of
Money Laundering
Act.
Probes revealed that multilevel marketing and Ponzi schemes were run by four firms Ablaze, Social Trade Pvt Ltd, 3W Digital Pvt Ltd and Intmaart Pvt Ltd. Anubhav Mittal and his friends were found to be running the four companies.
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