According to an additional commissioner of police, the EOW has frozen six bank accounts of QNet that have Rs46 crore as balance, and their teams would soon visit Bengaluru and Chennai to arrest some suspects
Economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai police, which is probing Hong Kong-based controversial multi-level marketing (MLM) operator QNet has so far frozen six bank accounts related with the company.
According to a report from the Times of India, these bank accounts have a balance of Rs46 crore. In addition, Manjunath Hegde, arrested in this cheating case, has been sent to judicial custody, the report says.
"We have asked the firm to submit all documents. Some office-bearers have approached the Sessions Court for anticipatory bail," the report says quoting, Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police, Mumbai.
Sinha told the newspaper that over 50 complainants have approached them in the QNet cheating case and the police will again visit Bengaluru and Chennai to arrest suspects.
Earlier this month, EOW registered a case against QNet, for allegedly duping thousands of investors by selling them plastic and glass products terming them miraculous objects for treating severe diseases like Cancer.
The complainant, Gurupreet Singh Anand, a computer consultant from Lokhandawala, Andheri in his first information report (FIR) stated that his wife was duped for Rs30,000 by some people who had introduced themselves as the independent representatives (IRs) of QNet. Anand told the police, “They (IRs) had said that one of the bio-products my wife bought could be used to treat my 12-year-old son's brain-related diseases.”
The FIR names five accused, including QNet's Hong Kong-based founder Dato Vijay Eswaran, a Malaysian by birth and an Indian by ethnicity, who is photographed hobnobbing with the Prince of Saudi Arabia, in order to enhance its credibility in the Gulf.
What is QNet?
QuestNet and GoldQuest, the MLM companies that had shut shop in 2009 following police action are back with a bigger bang. They now call themselves as QNet and are thriving in an environment where tens of thousands of Ponzis and MLM companies are able to lure people into believing that they have the formula to instant riches and a high growth career.
While QuestNet and GoldQuest, which mainly sold numismatic gold coins (they claimed they were limited edition coins that whose value would increase over time) in 2009 were forced to shut shop in India, their new avatar QNet offers a broader range of lifestyle ‘enhancing’ products (holiday packages, diamond watches, bio-discs, Chi-Pendants and herbal products for anything between Rs30,000 to Rs7 lakh), which promise fabulously high returns so long as new distributors are enrolled rapidly. Its product brochure says, “With 8 ways to earn and up to 50% of the sales paid out in commissions, QNET offers the most dynamic and innovative compensation plan in the direct selling profession.”
Like SpeakAsia, QNet is also registered in Singapore and has been banned in many countries, including Iran. In 2007, APLI, the direct selling Association of Indonesia, considered GoldQuest or QuestNet as a pyramid scheme.
According to Wikipedia.org, QNET has received a Fatwa by Dar al-Ifta that its business is not halal within Islamic law on the basis that it could harm the Egyptian economy. The company has also been accused of operating a product-based pyramid scheme.
At the end of August 2012, the Ministry Of Commerce and Industry of Saudi Arabia banned Qnet accusing it of stealing and falsification as well as not being registered with the ministry. Furthermore, a message was published on the official website of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Commerce and Industry warning the Saudi Arabian people not to be involved in such schemes under any pressure of false promises, mentioning the company name 'QNet' specifically as one on those fraudulent schemes operating in the country.
The governments of India, Iran, Indonesia, Nepal, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, The Sudan, Syria, and Turkey have at various points shutdown local offices of the company, arrested key members involved with the company, or pre-emptively banned the company from entering, Wikipedia.org, says.
Business Model
According to Wikipedia.org, QNet's business model has been described as a simple pyramid scheme, where initial entrants to the scheme do make money, but as the number of independent representatives (IR) increases, finding more IR's becomes harder and harder, until those that join late are unable to recover even their initial outlay and the model collapses.
The compensation plan operates by the recruitment of customers by existing IR. An IR is provided with an ID that gives access to a 'tracking centre' (TC) in its computer system through which the IR's sales are tracked. A TC has a left and right customer group. Every customer owns a TC which is then placed on the left or right customer side of the IR's TC. A 'direct' transaction (a customer's personal reference or sale) is counted as one transaction. An 'indirect’ transaction (someone in the cusomer's TC buys/refers/sells) is also, counted as one transaction. The company pays $250 each time three product sales on an IR's left customer group are matched by three product sales on the right.
RYTHM foundation -derived from the acronym 'Raise Yourself To Help Mankind'- is a charity organization created by QI Group.
What QNet sells?
At Present, QNet mainly markets products made by other subsidiary companies of QI Group. The products are in travel packages, nutrition, personal care, home care, collectibles, fashion accessories and education.
One of the products being marketed by the company is the Amezcua Bio Disc (also spelled BioDisc and BioDisk) which the company claims can "redefine and harmonise the energy of water, greatly maximising its positive affect on the human body". These and other detailed claims of often miraculous properties have been widely denounced as fraudulent by various scientists, media commentators and watchdog organisations. Critics have noted that the claims are based on thoroughly debunked pseudoscientific concepts such as hexagonal water and that they have never been validated by a peer-reviewed process. QNet has stated in a document published to its representatives that there are no known test and approval bodies to date on such products, Wikipedia.org says.
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The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police arrested a woman in her early 30s on Thursday for her active involvement in the multi-crore QNet scam. The total number of arrested accused has now reached 47, which includes Billiards champion and Padma Bhushan recipient Michael Ferreira.
In the Rs 1,000-crore scam of Hong Kong-based company QNet, nearly 5 lakh investors across the country were duped. QNet has been accused of using the banned binary pyramid business model for its multi-level marketing schemes to lure investors.
QNet posed as a marketing firm selling bio-discs, watches, herbal products, holiday packages, etc. It also claimed that by using the bio-disc, one could cure cancer and brain diseases, the police said.
Too much baggage
Accused Aditi Mitra was intercepted at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, and subsequently, arrested based on the lookout circular that had been issued against her.
Assistant commissioner of police Arun Jadhav confirmed her arrest said she was sent to police custody till March 23.
Mitra was allegedly trying to flee to Dubai for good. She was carrying eight big bags and two handbags. Of the eight, two contained her belongings; she refused to say what was in the other six, sources said.
Mitra, an independent representative associated with QNet, had been getting hefty commissions in return. She has multiple bank accounts, with one alone having Rs 25 lakh, as EOW officials found, adding that all her bank accounts have been frozen.
Active player
Investigators found that on the instructions of the other accused, Mitra was actively involved in the scam. She had brainwashed victims in order to induce them to invest in the scheme,†said special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat.
A victim, Sewri resident Arpita Majarekar, said, “She would conduct welcome sessions in malls and trap people with her sweet talk.
She had promised me and many others that if we invested in the scheme, we would get double the amount in three years.†Majarekar, who works in a private firm in Andheri, had invested nearly Rs 12.5 lakh in the scheme through Mitra.
She has been booked under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, Prize, Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, and the Indian Penal Code.
Ever since you lost your hard earned money in QNET SCAM, you all have multiple questions and facing multiple issues like :
1. Where and whom to approach for recovering your hard earned money?
2. How to help fight and stop this QNET SCAM?
3. How to teach your CHEATER UPLINES a lesson?
4. Issues regarding the “so called†“REFUND POLICYâ€.
5. Are you eligible for “Compensations�
6. Issues regarding action buy police authorities.
7. What is the status of the court cases etc.
These are an example of just a few issues and concerns you are facing, but there is GOOD NEWS for you all. We have been working overtime to try and bring an end to these woes and issues faced by Victims of Financial Frauds like this QNETSCAM.
So guys and girls tomorrow is the BIG DAY finally , Please do join us tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at 1.30 PM sharp at Andheri east, outside Sarangi Restaurant (Just 1 minute from the Andheri station on the east side).
Please do come and also inform other victims of the QNETSCAM.
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon sharp 1.30 PM, outside Sarangi Restaurant , Andheri-east, Mumbai.
Please note we have limited seats, first come first served basis allotment..so make sure to reach in time __/\__ . You can contact on 7498063701 in case of difficulty in locating us :)
Jai Hind.
Four persons, who were associated with Hong Kong-based QNET, a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, and duped 200 persons by promising them jobs, were arrested by Central Crime Station (CCS) officials on Thursday. However, the MD and directors of QNET and its sister company Vihaan Direct Selling are still at large.
Deputy commissioner of police (CCS) Avinash Mohanty said Sreenath Konda, Prasanna Kumar Reddy, V Kanchana, B Dhan Raj were arrested from different locations in the city for cheating people.
Police said the accused had been enrolling gullible people as agents by collecting Rs 10 lakh from a group of 10 persons.
Each person would be given status of promoter, direct them to attract a group (i.e., 10 persons) and make them join QNET by paying Rs 10 lakh, for which the promoter would be assured commission.
Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra Government to file the latest status report regarding investigation so far on the anticipatory bail plea of World Billiards champion Michael Ferreira and four others, who are facing charges of money laundering in the multi-crore QNet case.
The next hearing in the matter will take place on September 14.
Besides Ferreira, the others whose anticipatory bail plea were rejected were Malcom Desai, Vanka Srinivas, Maganlal Balaji, all directors of M/s Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt. Ltd, and Suresh Themiri, director of Transview Enterprises.
They are facing charges under Sections 420 (mischief), 468 (forgery), 471 (using forged document knowing it is not genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Justice Mridula Bhatkar of the Bombay High Court, who took on record the statement of public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat that investigations were still on, had in May rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.
Ferreira had started the operations of QNet, a multi-level marketing company, in India via his firm Vihaan Enteprises.
The QNet cheating case began with a complaint by Gurpreet Singh Anand, who raised his voice after losing Rs. 30,000.
According to the police, the money involved has crossed Rs. 1,000 crores in the alleged scam with more than five lakh investors allegedly losing their money in the case against QNet which is being probed by the Economic Offences Wing.
ANI
NewsAmbit, New Delhi
Delhi Police Economic Offence Wing(EOW) has registered an FIR against QNET India/Vihaan Direct selling India Private Limited and its three independent representatives on the allegations of cheating and fraudulently operating the multi level marketing, which is illegal in India. Police have initiated the investigation and suspecting huge scam, which is estimated in crores.
A senior Police officer of EOW said that we received a combined complaint against QNET India and its three independent representatives from more than dozen of people in the month of March this year. As per the allegations of main complainant Anuj Jain alleged that his friend Himashu Aggarwal approached him for an business opportunity. He said that he is an independent representative(IR) of an e-commerce based company. He said that he can arrange an meeting with the other IR’s who will tell you about the business and if they find you suitable you will get chance to be a part of the company. After few days Himanshu called Anuj Jain to come with a CV at a café situated in Nehru Place area on 29 November 2015. Anuj reached there, where he met with Himanshu and his to associates Anita Jaggi and Kanika. Trio told him about the business profile and also assured that this is not a networking marketing company. They demanded Rs 6.5 lakh to be a member of the company. They also said that company has millions of customers. IR of the company is treated as a partner and also got the profit share for each sale. After three four days Anuj gave them 6.5 lakh rupees but after some time he got to know that this is a multi level marketing company and fraudulently cheating innocent persons by roping them in it’s banned business with the help of IRs.
Police said that Anuj is not the only complainant so many more complainants also approached to EOW. After which a preliminary enquiry had conducted. It was found that some persons who are termed as IR contact their friends and close persons to join a new e-commerce business. They don’t tell the name of the company or complete business module at the beginning. After alluring them they set various amounts from the victim. Independent Representatives(IR) get training during the joining and talk to make further members. These kinds of IRs of the company are operated from different cafes and food courts situated in Delhi and NCR.
Those who join the company get user id etc and products like ravel packages, some other items etc are shown purchase from their money. The delivery address given in the portal is also found of overseas area most of the time and mostly that address is too fake type location only which shows that no products are being sold and it is a completely a money circulation scheme. Two websites were found involved in the namely www.unetindia.in and www.cmetindia.net were found mated to Vihaan Direct selling (India) Pvt ltd which is stated Indian Franchisee of Hong Kong based net company. Investigations are on. Police are trying to unearth the whole network of the IRs on which this company is running its business unlawfully in Delhi. A case has been registered u/s 420/120B/34 IPC and 4/5/6 of Prize Chits and money circulation Schemes(Banning) Act,1978 .
Profiles of IRs
Himashu works with Samsung
Anita Jaggi works with RBS
Bluru QNet agent who earned 50L a yr as commission held
Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested Ram Singh, an accused in the Rs 1,000 crore QNet case, for earning Rs 50 lakh or more as commission each year from proceeds of the crime.
Singh, a Bengaluru resident, was arrested last week after the imigration authorities at Bangalore airport detained him over a look out circular notice (LOC) issued by the Mumbai police. "We are going through all his bank account details and trying to ascertain the source of money to his account," said DCP Pravin Padwal of the EOW.
Singh's name had cropped up during the initial investigation in 2013 but the police could not locate him then. In January 2015, a police team visited his Bengaluru residence but did not find him there. The house was locked. He is the 19th accused to be arrested in this case so far.
"We are working to arrest all the culprits in this case. A special investigation team has been formed to nab the othe accused invovled," said Dhananjay Kamalakar, joint police commissioner, EOW. Singh, said police sources, has been sending money to his daughter who is studying in Canada. "We have to know his source of income. He has sent a major chunk of money to Canada. We suspect this money was gained from QNet. Moreover, he was looking after the QNet business in Dubai and has been shuttling between Dubai and India. We got his passport number late. Soon after getting it, we issued an LOC notice and he was detained," said an officer.
A special MPIDA court in February this year rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Michael Ferreira (77) winner of the World Amateur Billiards Championship and a Padma Bhushan recipient, and four others, Malcom Desai, Vanka Srinivas, Maganlal Balaji, all directors of M/s Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd and Suresh Themiri, director Transview Enterprises. They all have approached the high court now in the QNet case.
"They posed as a marketing firm which would sell bio-discs, watches, herbal products, holiday packages, etc. They even claimed that by using the bio-disc, one can cure cancer and brain diseases," cops said. Some money has been transferred to Malayasia, Singapore and Hong Kong, too, cops added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/EOW-to-now-probe-celebs-role-in-QNet/articleshow/52333087.cms
Mumbai: The city's economic offences wing (EOW) is now looking into allegations that several Bollywood celebrities campaigned for the cheat firm, QNet, through advetisements or by promoting the schemes of the self-proclaimed marketing firm.
Gurupreet Singh Anand, complainant in the Rs 1,000-crore QNet cheating case, on Wednesday said at least four Bollywood actors promoted the Ponzi schemes at different times in the QNet's promotional programs in United Kingdom and Malaysia. He has submitted a 23-page letter wherein he has attached the celebrities' pictures promoting the programs.
"I have submitted letter and all the relevant information to the EOW on May 12. I am hoping some action soon," Anand told TOI. He alleged that the money was laundered from India to Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Anand was speaking at a press conference where suddenly a group of QNet sympathisers appeared with "I trust QNet" placards.. They were later asked to leave the conference room.
Read article http://www.moneylife.in//article/qnet-secret-sfio-report-says-mlm-ponzi-schemes-and-lsquo-a-threat-to-national-security-and-rsquo/46817.html
The company Qnet is celebrating VCon from 3-7 May. As a present,yesterday late night, I posted lot of comments on numerous pics uploaded on Instagram. I also posted on VChief Pathmans account. Unfortunately, they kept deleting my posts and had to ultimately block me. If each one of us, Indians, takes to instagram and starts posting messages like me, then they would have to either block us or abandon their account, which is their money making tool. You can start with Qnetofficial,TheV, Pathmans account, etc with phrases like Pyramid Scheme, Qnetscam, Franchise Fraud, Police arrests, court cases,Cheating, etc. They cannot stop us if we all work as one unit.
Hope we all teach them a lesson and save other fellow Indians.
Jai Hind
CM Devendra Fadnavis has assured detailed inquiry into QNet: BJP
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has promised to make a detailed inquiry of the alleged irregularities by the QNet multilevel marketing company and take action against the offenders, said BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari on Saturday. Former union minister P. Chidambaram’s wife was a legal counsellor with the company.
The QNet company, which was earlier known as Goldquest, has cheated 12 lakh people to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees. The court has rejected anticipatory bail to the accused in this case. When the CM was contacted about this, he promised to make a detailed inquiry and take action. If necessary, he said that the CBI’s help would also be taken, said Mr Bhandari.
The party spokesperson demanded that the role of former Union minister P. Chidambaram and his wife needs to be probed in this case. “Mr Chidambaram’s wife was a legal counsellor of the concerned company. Taking note of complaint registered by a lawyer from Chennai, the Central Vigilance Department handed over the case to the CBI. The complaint also has a mention of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor. However, the CBI did not investigate the matter during the tenure of Congress government at the Centre,” he alleged.
In Maharashtra, the wife of Gurpreet Singh Anand had in 2013 filed a complaint of fraud against the company. However, there was not much inquiry during the Congress-NCP regime. But since the court has denied anticipatory bail to other accused, including sportsman Michael Ferreira, the investigation can be expedited. Many sensational things are expected to come out in the investigation as the CM has promised to carry out a detailed probe in the case, said Mr Bhandari.
https://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RabPkRNutwU
A group of investors in the QNet multi-level market case on Sunday gathered near Holy Family Church and marched as a protest and public awarness against ponzi schemes. The protesetors reached at the house of accused Padma Bhushan Michael feriera in the QNet cheating case. The protesters were holding placards that read, Michel Ferriera Shame Shame! and Ban QNet".
"We chose Bandra for protest since most of the accused in this scam reside here. We had informed the police in advance and stated that the peaceful march will be for awareness about such fraud schemes and protest against such ponzi schemes," said Gurpreet Singh Anand, the first complainant in the QNet cheating case. He added that thgough it was his birthday but he did not spend time at home and was busy in the awareness drive.
Similar protests were held in New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad on Sunday. Last month a special MPIDA court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Michael Ferreira, winner of the World Amateur Billiards Championship and a Padma Bhushan recipient, and four others in the QNet case. They have approached the Bombay High Court for anticipatory bail. Ferreira, 77, and others had applied for anticipatory bail in 2014.
The economic offences wing of Mumbai police, probing the multicrore Qnet scam, has issued notices to Indian Super League (ISL) officials to gather details about taking sponsorship from the tainted company.
Qnet had made celebratory association as the official direct selling partner of Goa Football Club (FC Goa) throughout the Indian Super League 2015 season, from October to December. FC Goa is a part of the ISL football league tournament. Sources said the police are trying to find out the how the proceeds of crime of a company under serious investigation, have been used to sponsor the team. Police are also baffled as how the Qnet managed to generate money when its accounts have been seized. "We have sum moned ISL officials to understand the amount and flow of money in their sponsorship from the Qnet company which had defrauded several investors," said an official.
The Saradha Scam which started mainly in Bengal looks relatively smaller compared to the Qnet scam which had defrauded people across various cities like Mumbai,Delhi,Bangalore,Hyderabad etc for over a period of 10 years.
To unite and protest against this MLM scam plaguing India, all victims,activists, are requested that they gather outside Holy Family church,Hill Road,Bandra West at 10.30 A.M. tomorrow 24th April,2016.
Various press and media agencies will be present to cover the event meet and address grievances to authorities.
The current government has taken note of the Qnet scam and matter will be taken up at upcoming Parliament session.
All Indians are cordially invited to support the cause and join in the protest. We need to end the scam by spreading awareness and recover the money taken away by the scamsters.
A request to all to please forward this message on Facebook, twitter and WhatsApp groups... Jai Hind
https://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6x2QgI6K7o&nore...
https://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RabPkRNutwU
https://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ5PeybXnLo