New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday conducted searches at 16 different places across West Bengal and one place in Hyderabad at the premises of accused in an on-going investigation of a case related to Multi-Level Marketing and Ponzi Schemes scam.

According to CBI officials, a case was registered on May 26, 2017, under sections 420, 406, 409 and 34 of IPC against Managing Directors and Directors of M/s Asoka Group of companies on the orders of the Supreme Court.

It was alleged that the accused had collected about Rs 20 crore as the deposit from the public on assurance to repay the amount with a high rate of interest. It was further alleged that upon the maturity of the said deposits, the accused persons did not repay and misappropriated the invested amount.

The CBI officials said that the group companies were not authorized to collect the deposit from the public and they deceived people by offering very high returns. The accused allegedly ran money circulation schemes by returning some funds to older depositors to have more number of investors and thus cheated them.

Meanwhile, in another case, searches were conducted at six different places in West Bengal and Karnataka at the premises of Directors/Promoters of a private company in an on-going investigation of a case relating to Multi-Level Marketing and Ponzi schemes.

This case was registered on September 26, 2018, under sections 406, 409, 420, and 120B of IPC against CMD and other Directors/Employees of M/s. Pious Group of companies on the orders of the SC. It was alleged that the accused collected about Rs 35 crore from the public on assurance to repay the amount with a high rate of interest but the accused persons did not repay and closed down the office, thereby cheated the investors and misappropriated the invested amount.

The CBI officials said that the documents recovered during searches in both the cases are being scrutinised for further investigation. (ANI)