All panellists of the Ponzi scheme are eagerly waiting for their money they had ‘invested’ in Speak Asia for earning huge returns. According to investigative reports, almost half of the money collected by Speak Asia was transferred to Singapore, while the rest may still be in India
Alekh Angre
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has speeded up the investigation in the Speak Asia scam to find out where the last source of the money—which the company collected on the pretext of giving income merely for filing e-surveys—was sent.
Sources from the investigating agency confirm that Speak Asia’s financial consultant has given a few leads in the matter before been sent to jail. An officer close to the investigation, preferring anonymity, told Moneylife, “Our major focus of the investigation is to find out the money trail. So far, it is learnt that some amount has been sent to Singapore, while the remaining is still in India.”
In the meantime, there are several sites and blogs which have come up over the Internet claiming to provide “latest and authentic” information about Speak Asia. However, all the sites and blogs are merely copying each other and trying very hard to keep their herd intact. One can see the mood of panellists from the comments posted below each article or blog post. The official website of Speak Asia remains down.
Currently, the EOW has arrested Speak Asia’s financial consultant Sanjeev Dandona and Nayan Khandor, a Mumbai-based Web designer responsible for designing e-surveys. “Both of them have been sent to jail custody till 26th October,” said an official from EOW.
Mr Dandona was arrested by the EOW on 29th September, after it was learnt that he was the proxy owner of Kritanj Management & Allied Services and is linked with Speak Asia. Kritanj Management is the master distributor of Singapore-based Haren Ventures Pte Ltd (HVP) for e-zines in India. Mr Dandona is also alleged to be advising HVP and Tulsient Tech Pvt Ltd and also transferring funds collected by Speak Asia agents to Singapore.
Just the day after the arrest of Mr Dandona, it was revealed that the online surveys, which Speak Asia used to claim (and its agents used to believe), were actually created not in Singapore, but in Mumbai. This was revealed following the arrest of Nayan Khandor on 30th September, a Web designer and director of Dadar (central Mumbai)-based Brand Salon, who said that his firm was active in creating the online surveys for Speak Asia.
During the interrogation, Mr Dandona had revealed that Speak Asia was indeed running a Ponzi scheme and Mr Khandor confessed that he designed the surveys from Mumbai itself. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/speak-asia-advisor-finally-confesses-the-company-was-running-a-ponzi-scheme/20369.html).
In a separate development in the same matter, the Andhra Pradesh High Court, on 11th October, dismissed the bail petitions of Rajiv Mehrotra, Speak Asia’s director, along with four other employees.
The Andhra Pradesh CID has registered a case against Speak Asia for running a money-chain business without any registration. The bail petition was dismissed and the HC also vacated a stay on the arrest of the officials after they moved the HC against the FIR (First Information Report).