Coimbatore: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here on Monday sought seven days custody of G Ramesh, 31, managing director of Peelamedu-based Universal Trading Solutions (UTS), who was arrested on February 26 for cheating investors.
Several residents of Coimbatore, Tirupur, Nilgiris, Erode, Salem and even Kerala were lured by the Ponzi schemes offered by UTS, which began operations in 2017, EOW sources said. As many as 1,000 investors in Coimbatore alone had lost Rs 10 crore.
After M Ramesh of Sivadhaniyapuram near Bharathiar University lodged a complaint, EOW sleuths raided UTS office in 2019. They seized several documents and registered a case against UTS managing director G Ramesh, directors Kanagaraj and Jaskar, and general manager Sunilkumar. They were booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and section 21 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act 1997.
Preliminary investigation revealed that UTS received Rs 1,103 crore from investors.
But Ramesh obtained interim stay from the Madras high court to stop police proceeding against him. The Salem city police arrested him in July 2020 for cheating investors of his company named Universal Trading Enterprises (UTE) and lodged him in the Salem Central Prison. After the HC vacated the stay order on February 8, 2021, EOW arrested Ramesh on February 26.
Income tax department officials have identified Ramesh’s properties in Coimbatore. EOW police are expecting petitions about the fraud to the tune of Rs 200 crore from victims.