2 Greeks run ‘Ponzi scheme’ from office in Cuffe Parade

MUMBAI: In perhaps the first alleged Ponzi scheme case involving foreigners in the city, two Greek nationals, a man and a woman, arrived in Mumbai last year, set up an office in Cuffe Parade’s Maker Tower and even launched a YouTube channel to attract investors. So far, all suspects in Ponzi scheme cases registered by city police have been Indian.

The two—who are no longer in the city—had appointed a local as a director and told him to transfer the funds fetched through the scheme to foreign accounts. The director filed a cheating and conspiracy complaint against the duo a few days ago after being told to transfer Rs 40 lakh to the duo’s own account.

In his complaint, director Devendra Singh Kushwaha told the police that Greek nationals Nicolas Koonis (38) and his associate Kaloso Cantigioni (40) had moved to Mumbai in January 2018 and set up Drego Consultants Pvt Ltd. The suspects hired an office space in Maker Tower and appointed three Indians, including Kushwaha, as directors in the company. Accounts were opened in the company’s name in three leading banks and an official email ID created.

“They floated several schemes under the banner of Global Inter Gold (GIG) and asked investors to become members to earn profits. One needed to invest Rs 30,750 and bring in two more members each. By doing so, the investor was promised a profit of 500 euros,” said a senior police officer.

The suspects also conducted a two-day seminar in New Delhi earlier this year to lure investors to sign up for the scheme. “The company has a YouTube channel to attract investors. Its representatives provide details on how to join hands with the company and earn profits. We are going through all the videos posted online and including that in our report,” said the officer. The channel claimed the company was a leader in the field of financial security. Those promoting the scheme on the channel claimed to have formed a WhatsApp group and provided a mobile number to join it. Police are trying to gather details of the group.

While police do not have a record of the total investors, they said the money was being deposited by new members in three bank accounts and each time the duo would ask Kushwaha to transfer the funds to other accounts. “However, they asked Kushwaha to transfer Rs 40 lakh to their own account. Since it was a huge amount, Kushwaha found something was fishy and approached us,” said the officer.

The complainant, who was appointed on a Rs 2.5 lakh monthly salary, has not got paid for the past two months. The website where investors are asked to create a login and password seeks their names as well as bank details. Police said they are worried that the bank details might be misused. “We will be writing to the foreigners’ regional registration office (FRRO) to help us get details about the foreigners and their stay in India,” added the officer.

Meanwhile, police are also taking help from the cyber crime cell to zero in on the internet protocol (IP) address of the emails the suspects sent to the complainant. No arrest has been made yet.