‘Curious-Case of Michael-Ferreira & QNET’

Arjun J Chaudhuri

That on basis of FIR-registered in August-2013, former-world Billiards champion Michael Ferreira  Michael Ferreira  , and co-conspirators had been remanded to police-custody after being arrested by Thane-police, Mumbai for committing Rs. 400-Crore fraud & money-laundering which is crime of cheating both Investor & State, and subsequently Remanded to Judicial-Custody by Special MPID-Court for defrauding-investors in what is termed as QNET-Scam with Hyderabad-Police also demanding their police-custody U/Orders of transit-remand for further criminal-investigation by Means of Interrogations.

That it is the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Thane-police, Mumbai that arrested the accused for cognizable offence U/IPC 1860 read-with prize, Chits and money circulation schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act. That Search & Seizure of Properties of Franchisee-Firms were being conducted to collect-evidence and detect related-crimes which were not discovered.

That co-conspirators accused of committing-crimes of fraud  money laundering include Srinivas Rao Vanka and Magaral Veeravalli Balaji, both directors of Vihaan  Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd., Malcolm Nozer Desai, who is the 20% Stake-Holder in Vihaan  Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd. and include at least 15-others accused and arrested by police from different-jurisdictions.

That it is on basis of criminal complaint filed before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Thane-Police, Mumbai, that former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira, and co-conspirators have been found to have conducted meetings between themselves and prospective investors to dishonestly induce them into investing their money into various Ponzi-Schemes of QNET. That the public appeal has been made to contact other victims of this alleged fraud and money laundering by accused of QNET-Scam.

That anticipatory bail applications U/Section-438 of CR.PC 1973 of all accused in QNET-scam were rejected by the Bombay High Court calling the whole-business of QNET as ‘Prima-Facie Illegal-Business’. That this business promoting the motto of 'Sell-More, Earn-More' is the alleged chain where in invested investors were deceived to deceive-others into investing in the Ponzi-Scheme by means of conducting-training at organized workshops for the illegal purpose U/so-called business of E-marketing. 

That injunctive action has been ordered by Hon’ble-Court to put the immediate stop to such illegal-business which is deemed prima-facie as illegal on grounds that its very-continuance has the very grave and serious-impact on economic status and mental health of investors at the large-scale. 

That Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) had termed the whole business of QI Group in India as the threat to national security. That Whistle-Blower evidence along with witness-testimonials of complainants suffering unlawful-Loss at the expense of unlawful gains of accused has led to Supreme-Court of India dismissing all special leave to petitions filed by the accused against the arrest-order of Lower-Courts.

That special public-prosecutor had stated before the Hon’ble-Court that former-world Billiards champion Michael Ferreira  held 80%-shares in the Franchisee-Company of Hong Kong-based QNET, and therefore the key accused in this criminal-case. That QNET Allegedly-ran the ‘Ponzi-Scheme’, seeking investments between Rs 30,000 to Rs 7.5 lakh after which the money-earned was laundered and diverted out of the country, necessitating Michael Ferreira’s  interrogation into revealing where the money-diverted is to be found…