Ponzi scheme company MD, director arrested in Bhubaneswar

The managing director of a Ponzi scheme company and his wife, who is a director of the firm based in Odisha's Ganjam district were arrested by the police from Bhubaneswar on Tuesday for allegedly duping investors of over Rs 60 crore, police said. Braja Mohan Patnaik(44) and his wife Tridhara Mohanty (40), managing director and director respectively of Datum Marketing Limited had been absconding since May this year, Berhampur superintendent of police Pinak Mishra said.

The couple were brought back to Berhampur and produced before a court which remanded the couple to police custody for three days, he said. The police had registered two cases against the couple and some employees of the company in 2016 and May this year following which the two fled, he said. The exact amount duped by the company, which had started functioning in October 2006, from the investors is yet to be assessed. Preliminary investigations, however, showed it had collected around Rs 60 crore under different schemes from over 1550 investors from across the state and outside through agents, the SP said.

The company had lured people to invest by promising them to multiply their money in a short span of time, the police said. When the company did not pay the depositors even after the maturity of their investments, several of them had demonstrated in front of the company's office demanding that they are refunded their money.

Police said the company's head office at Konishi near here has been sealed and documents, computers, hard discs were seized. Four bank accounts had also been freed. Two of the company's employees were arrested in connection with one of the cases against the company.

(With inputs from agencies.)