The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets of Nowhera Shaik of Heera Group of Companies worth Rs 299.99 crore under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a ponzi fraud case.
"The attached assets consisting of 96 immovable properties located in Telangana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh worth Rs 277.29 crore in the form of agricultural lands, commercial plots, residential buildings, commercial complexes and balances in bank accounts worth Rs 22.69 crore," the ED stated.
The agency had initiated investigations under PMLA on the basis of FIRs registered by Central Crime Station, Hyderabad, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Police against Nowhera Shaik of Heera Group of Companies and others on the allegation of illegally collecting deposits from lacs of investors under the guise of high returns.
There are multiple FIRs registered across the country against Heera Group of Companies.
During investigation, it was found that Nowhera Shaik incorporated multiple companies under Heera Group of Companies and collected an amount of approximately Rs 5600 crore as unauthorized deposits from around 1,72,000 investors across the country by engaging a network of marketing executives and direct selling agents with a false promise of paying high rate of returns of 3 percent per month which is 36 percent per year.
She floated multiple schemes and extensively advertised the schemes to lure the victims. For this purpose, Nowhera Shaik started 24 firms and entities under Heera Group and 182 bank accounts were opened in different banks at different parts of the countries in the name of these 24 entities.
Further 10 bank accounts were also opened in foreign countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. For collecting these deposits, Nowhera Shaik does not possess any valid permission either under the Banking Regulation Act, Companies Act, RBI Act or from any other government agency such as SEBI etc for collecting deposits.
She started gold, food and textile trading businesses only to create the impression that she earning legitimate profits, but in reality, the payouts to the new members were simply being funded from the cash flows generated from new members and investments.
The volume of business in her gold, textile and food marts was minuscule and not sufficient to justify the high returns promised by her.
The investigation further revealed that Nowhera Shaik along with her family members and close associates diverted the depositor's money to their personal accounts and amassed huge movable and immovable assets for wrongful personal gain.
The diverted funds were further layered into various shell companies and in the form of benami assets so as to ultimately cheat lakhs of innocent victims and to launder these crime proceeds for personal benefit.
