COIMBATORE: The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) police arrested a Kerala native and seized a car from him for cheating more than a thousand investors to the tune of Rs 10 crore through Ponzi schemes. The arrested person is PS Sherin (38), a native of Peramangalam in Thrissur district of the neighbouring state.
The police said Sherin finished his under graduation and was engaged in the gold and diamond business in Mumbai. He started a firm - Vinn Wealth International - for trading gold ornaments and diamonds with its branches in Coimbatore (in a mall), Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
In 2019, he offered Ponzi schemes through the company. According to an investment plan, the company promised to return Rs 1,600 per week for 25 weeks upon an investment of Rs 20,000. The firm also offered gold and diamond ornaments for each investor, police said.
Over a thousand investors from Tamil Nadu and Kerala parked their funds in the firm based on assurances given to them. The investors received returns as promised only in the first few months. A resident of Gandhipuram, A M Xavier (50) who invested Rs 1.5 lakh and received just Rs 11,000 from the company lodged a complaint with the EOW police in December 2019.
Based on the complaint, Sherin, his wife Ramya, staff Shynesh, Roy and Baijumon were booked under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, and section 5 of Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (in financial establishment) (TNPID) Act. Fearing action against him, Sherin who went absconding.
He was arrested on Monday night while police, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a car in which he was travelling at Walayar check post.
Police said he was produced before the special court for TNPID Act cases and later remanded to judicial custody, adding that the accused had purchased a new villa and a commercial complex in Thrissur. We are planning to arrest his wife and three of his accomplices, police added.