Rs 50 cr ponzi scheme: Five held for cheating people by promising higher returns

Team Udayavani, Jan 12, 2020, 11:07 AM IST

Mangaluru: City police have arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in a Rs 50 crore fraud by promising people higher monetary returns.

Manjunath Nayak, a resident of Derebail; Denzil Mascarenhas, a Konchady resident; Ashok Naik, a Derebail resident; Vikas Nayak and Vishwanath Naik both residents of Bengaluru were arrested on December 30.

The arrested were employed in the ‘Speak and Group’ concern, started by Dhanush M K of Kundapur along with his friends. The firm had managed to collect huge sums of money from people, including NRIs by promising monthly four percent returns on their investment. The employees managed to entice people by showing them a few insurance schemes claiming higher returns.

Cases in connection with the alleged fraud have been lodged at Kavoor, Kankanady police station as well as at Kundapur rural police station.

Police investigating the case have said that Dhanush had mostly appointed his relatives to important positions in the concern. The firm had branches at Bondel and Valencia in Mangaluru, Bengaluru and other places. Police informed that they are yet to verify authenticity of news circulated on social media regarding the demise of the group owner in Dubai on December 26.

Meanwhile Dhanush and the other main accused in the case Uday Kumar Naik were untraceable. Dhanush’s friend, Jean Nisha Misquith is also said to have gone missing.

It is gathered that City police commissioner, Dr P S Harsha has urged that the case be handed over to the criminal investigation department (CID) as it has the expertise to handle economic offenses.