Pearlvine International lured investors with ‘high-return’ schemes and charged a minimum of Rs 2,250 in membership fees.
Shillong, Dec 12: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Shillong has attached assets worth Rs 17.91 crore in Meghalaya in connection with a ₹1,575-crore investment fraud run through pearlvine.com, a Ponzi-style scheme that promises high returns on investments.
The attached properties linked to the company, Pearlvine International, include include 13 immovable assets and seven movable assets, among them luxury vehicles allegedly purchased through proceeds of the scam.
The ED attached the properties while acting on an FIR filed by the CID Meghalaya Police based on an RBI complaint.
The investigation focuses on a Ponzi-style scheme that operated across India between 2018 and March 2023, collecting money from lakhs of unsuspecting investors.
Pearlvine International, an unregistered entity falsely projecting itself as US-based, lured investors with “high-return” schemes and charged a minimum of Rs 2,250 in membership fees. By 2022, it claimed to have 80 lakh members in India and abroad.
ED investigations revealed that the company collected at least Rs 1,575 crore, of which Rs 395.35 crore remains unpaid to investors. The agency has identified Neeraj Kumar Gupta as the mastermind behind the scam, noting that he purchased the pearlvine.com domain in 2015 and conducted seminars across India and Thailand to promote the fraudulent scheme.
With the latest attachment by ED Shillong Sub-Zonal Office, the total assets attached by ED in this case now stand at Rs 54.98 crore, including the earlier attachment worth Rs 37.07 crore.
The ED said further investigation is underway.
