EOW Arrests Ponzi Scam MD for Conning Investors of Rs 50 Cr

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing of Odisha police on Tuesday arrested the managing director (MD) of Way to Add India Pvt Ltd on charges of conning gullible investors of Rs 50 crore.

The arrested accused, identified as Mohan Kumar Parida of Bhadrak district was nabbed from Chandbali.

According to an EOW release, the case was registered on the written complaint by one Chhita Ranjan Palo of Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, against the company and its MD, who holds an MBA degree, and others for inducing him and many other investors with high returns of 26% interest per month for 3 months on the invested amount under different schemes – autopool package, boosting package. They were also promised bonus of 2% for enrolling new members.

“An investor was required to join the schemes by depositing Rs 2,500 which is non-refundable. Following this, he was given a login ID under which he could enrol 3 more persons for commission/bonus. Initially, he was being given Ayurvedic products of Rs 500 which was subsequently stopped. To win their confidence, some initial returns were also made. The MD, however, abruptly closed the schemes, the company office and fled after collecting Rs 50 crore from 2000 investors in Odisha,” the EOW investigation revealed.

In 2023, Polo deposited  Rs 44.60 lakh and initially got the return of Rs 12,600. “Thereafter, no amount was paid to him.

Way to Add India (P) Ltd was registered with ROC, Cuttack, in 2020, having its registered office at Prachi Vihar, Palasuni, Rasulgarh. “The company was actually running a Ponzi scheme in a pyramid-binary structure. The company was not authorised to accept any public deposit either by RBI or SEBI. It was also not issuing any money receipt rather asking the investors to deposit the invested amount in its accounts. The initial returns were made from the investment of the new members,” said the release.

The collected money were diverted to several other accounts, the release added.