COIMBATORE: The Cyber Crime Cell of the city police registered a case on Saturday against three persons, including the proprietor of an online stock brokerage firm, who is believed to have embezzled hundreds of crores of rupees from investors and speculators.
The complainant, G Mohan (45) from Ramanathapuram, in his complaint lodged on Thursday, alleged that the proprietor of Orion Broking Services, whose office is located at RS Puram, East Periyasamy Road, was untraceable and the office was also closed.
Police have booked the proprietor of the company, Johnson P Jose, his wife Sinsy Jose, and the assistant chairman, along with other company employees under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police sources said that the company had 11 offices across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. All offices reportedly closed down a few days ago.
Cyber Crime Cell Inspector S Muthumalai said that the company was a member of the National Stock Exchange.
On its website, the brokerage firm claims that it is also a member of the “Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the MCX-SX, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), the National Commodities Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), the National Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCEIL), and the Ace Derivatives and Commodity Exchange Limited (ACE).”
Police said that the company invests on behalf of its investors in a wide array of commodities, derivatives, IPOs, mutual funds and equities. It has been functioning for the last eight years.
The complainant Mohan said that the company would pay out returns on investments, on a pay-by-demand basis to its clients. Clients can check on their funds through an online account, for which each investor is given unique login credentials.
Police said that there were thousands of investors who had enrolled with the firm, and estimate that the suspects could have made off with hundreds of crores of rupees. The proprietor is also believed to have offloaded the stock-holdings of all his clients just before closing down the offices.
City Commissioner of Police A K Viswanathan, said that he is going to write to the Director General of Police, requesting a CB-CID probe into the case.