Manipal group fraud: Accused swindled Pais' money, parked with fraudster

BENGALURU: Investigations in the multi-crore financial fraud reported by Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMP) have taken an interesting turn. A whopping $425,000 allegedly siphoned off from the company by main accused Sandeep Gururaj was invested in a company run by Sydney Lemos, who has been jailed for over 500 years for running a ponzi scheme in Dubai.

The link between Gururaj and Lemos came to the fore when Cubbon Park police, probing a complaint lodged by MEMG, stumbled upon WhatsApp conversations between the two between March and December 2016. Gururaj, 38, deputy general manager of MEMG, was arrested along with wife Charusmita, 30, his friend Amritha Chengappa, 32, and the latter's mother Meera Chengappa, 59, by police in January 2019. Another accused, Vishal Somanna, is still on the run.

Gururaj had been charged with moving funds from different bank accounts, including the private accounts of MEMG managing director Ranjan Pai and his wife Shruti, to a few fake companies and bank accounts opened in foreign locations.

Investors were promised annual returns up to 120%

MEMG suspected the magnitude of the financial crime to be around Rs 62 crore, but later revised it to more than Rs 100 crore.

While tracking the money trail, it was found Gururaj had been interacting with Lemos, whose forex operation was run under the banner ‘Exential’. A majority of those invested in Lemos company were cabin crew of different airlines. “We suspect Gururaj

to have bumped into Lemos through Vishal Somanna, who worked as a pilot with Qatar Airways,” a police officer said.

People could open an account with Exential with a $25,000 deposit and the money will be invested in foreign currency and traded in markets using algorithms. The investors were promised annual returns up to120%.

“Gururaj had not disclosed the investments made with Lemos while working at MEMG,” a police source said. In the WhatsApp conversations, Gururaj had pleaded with Lemos to return the money and had made multiple requests for scheduling a meeting. However, Lemos kept dodging him stating he was preoccupied with meetings.

While maintaining that he was awaiting funds from brokers, Lemos replied: “Bro, currently it’s not possible to process even 5k. If it was possible, I would have not made u wait for 2 months. It’s not that we have money and we are not paying out. With the office closed, we have not got a penny from the broker. Result of office being closed.”

Gururaj had reportedly opened 17 bank accounts with deposits of Rs $25,000 each.

In April 2018, a Dubai court sentenced two Goans — 37-year-old Sydney Lemos and his senior accounts specialist 25-year-old Ryan de Souza — to over 500 years each in jail for duping thousands of investors in a $200-million scam. Lemos, a junior football player who later sponsored FC Goa in 2015 and owned FC Bardez in Dubai, cheated investors out of their retirement and lifetime savings under a ponzi scheme disguised as a forex scheme.