The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch, Kozhikode, arrested Amway India Enterprises CEO and chairman William Scott Pinckney and two directors of the network marketing company on Monday, on charges of financial irregularities.
Crime Branch officials said Pinckney, 62, from the US, and directors Sanjay Malhotra, 42, and Anshu Budhraja, 43, both hailing from New Delhi, were arrested in connection with three money chain fraud cases registered in Wayanad district.
“Pinckney and the others were in the state to secure anticipatory bail in a case registered based on a complaint of Vishalakshi, a native of Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode. Though they got anticipatory bail in that case, they were arrested in connection with three cases registered by Wayanad Crime Branch on charges under the Violation of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act,” said Crime Branch SP (EOW) P A Valsan, who is heading the investigation.
The officials said the arrested would be produced in court on Tuesday after interrogation.
There were complaints that Amway had supplied new products to distributors at high prices, and that lakhs of rupees thus collected was invested in the insurance business.
Earlier, the Crime Branch had seized products worth `2.5 crore from warehouses across the state and arrested Kerala state distributor of Amway, Rajmohan, a native of Chennai, who was in charge of the company’s operations in the state for the past two years, on the basis of the complaint filed by Vishalakshi.