Heera Gold fraud: Ex-cops, staffer were also investors

MUMBAI: Among the depositors in investment firm Heera Gold, which is embroiled in a Rs 500-crore cheating case, were two retired police inspectors, who along with their families had invested more than Rs 20 lakh in various schemes run by the Heera Group of Companies, and an employee at Heera Gold's Thane office, who had had invested over Rs 1.3 crore.

The investment firm's director, Nowhera Shaikh, who is being interrogated for her role in the cheating case will be produced before the Esplanade court on Thursday.

In the last two weeks, around 150 investors approached Mumbai police's economic offences wing (EOW) complaining they were not getting returns on their investments and that the firm had cheated them. "Investors are continuously coming to us and we note down their details and payment defaulted by the firm," said an officer. Most of the employees of these firms had invested money in various schemes. The Heera Group would give 36% to 42% profit to investors annually. In the last five years, the investors claimed the firm never suffered any losses. The firm claimed it was into buying and selling of gold. Though the firm bought gold from Mumbai and sold it through its outlets in various Indian states and to its clients, it claimed a whopping profit each year. Three firms of Heera group collectively have a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore.

However, Heera Gold, Heera Textiles and Heera Exim, run by Shaikh, began defaulting on payment since May. Shaikh was first arrested for cheating investors by Hyderabad police in October 2017, and later Mumbai police took her in custody.

Vineet Dhanda, advocate for Shaikh, said the firms had planned to return money to its investors from December. The police said it has identified several properties belonging to the firm which would be attached to auction it through the competent authority so that the money fetched could be distributed among the complainants.