Rs 500 crore scam: EOW arrests three, over 11,000 investors cheated in Maharashtra
Thane (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a couple and their associate, who allegedly swindled more than 11,000 investors, including police officials, from across Maharashtra of over Rs 500 crore, police said on Saturday.
In a coordinated action, the Thane police's EOW tracked down the accused, Sameer Narvekar, his wife Neha, and their associate Amit Palaw, in neighbouring Gujarat on Thursday, an official said.
According to police, the accused established an investment company, Trade with Jazz, with its headquarters in Pune in 2019, offering a scheme that allegedly drew in more than 11,000 people, including 1,500 police personnel, from across Maharashtra.
The trio allegedly lured victims with promises of a 4 per cent monthly return on stock market trading and allied ventures, the official said, adding that the firm projected monthly earnings of nearly 10 per cent to build credibility.
The company abruptly shut its offices and stopped responding to investors, prompting a flood of police complaints, he said.
According to the initial probe, investors have been defrauded of around Rs 500 crore.
The official said that the EOW has also gathered information suggesting that several government officials and bureaucrats, some of them retired from service, had invested in the scheme.
The trio have been booked under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act, 1999, and sections 61(2)(criminal conspiracy) and 316(5) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, he said.
The Thane EOW is examining bank accounts, financial documents and money flows linked to the accused, and further arrests are likely, the official said.
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Mamdani’s mother filmmaker Mira Nair’s name appears in 2009 mail in Epstein Files
New Delhi: The controversial documents of the late sex racketeer Jeffrey Epstein continue to throw up surprises with their string of names of famous people, the latest name being that of renowned filmmaker and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mother Mira Nair.
A fresh set of documents related to the ‘Epstein Files’ was reportedly released by the US Department of Justice on Friday and includes an email which was sent by publicist Peggy Siegal to Epstein in 2009. The email is learned to describe the publicist leaving an afterparty organized at the Manhattan townhouse owned by Ghislaine Maxwell following an event tied to Nair’s 2009 film Amelia.
In the email sent early-morning on October 21, 2009, Seigal is said to have written, “Just left Ghislaine’s townhouse after party for film,” adding that former US President Bill Clinton, founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos and Nair were present at the afterparty.
The mail has also reportedly includes comments on Nair’s new film, which is a biographical drama starring Hillary Swank as the aviator Amelia Earhart and Richard Gere as her husband, publisher George Putnam.
The US Justice Department on Friday released over three million pages of documents, including 2,000 videos and 1,80,000 images, on Epstein.
The sex trafficker, who was also a former financier, allegedly committed suicide while in a New York jail in 2019 and awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted for her role in assisting Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.
