Nagpur investors duped of crores

Offices of Satellite Software & Designs, dealing in Internet direct marketing, were ransacked by angry investors on Saturday morning after they came to know that the directors and managers of the company had duped them and fled with crores of rupees.

With the city already in the grip of various frauds, thousands of members and franchisees of Satellite Software & Designs on Saturday morning woke up to the news that those managing the show had wound up business and fled with all their master computers and documents from the company's head office and two branch offices on Friday night.

Soon after, irate investors and clients gathered near the head office.

They gave vent to their fury by ransacking the office and taking away with them a teak door and some computer accessories.

They later lodged a complaint at Ambazari police station against the company directors and managers.

Following the complaint, Ambazari Police has registered an offense under sections 420, 34 of the IPC against managing director Raj Prakash Durai, technical manager J Vighneshwar, manager of Untkhana Road branch Navin Kumar, office assistant Tagur and driver Shankar.

Sources informed that the company was initially outsourcing Internet marketing and advertising for a US company inslimbeauty.com.

The company used to get money in the US dollars. Slowly, the company started propagating that Internet marketing is 60 per cent cheaper than traditional marketing and started getting orders for bulk e-mailing.

It floated three different schemes. As per the schemes, the company collected a minimum of Rs 3,000 as refundable security deposit after signing a memorandum of understanding with an individual interested in earning money.

After a person became a franchisee, the company used to give him a floppy containing 500 e-mail addresses.

These franchisees used to get 60 paise for e-mailing the details of product advertising/ marketing material per e-mail address.

The franchisee used to get a total of Rs 3,000 per month. For gaining confidence of the people, the accused managing director and managers started publishing advertisements in local newspapers.

Two more schemes were floated by the company thousands of people started becoming franchisees. One of the schemes which evoked tremendous response from almost every section of the society promised doubling of the amount deposited with the company within 45 days.

The franchisees started getting bulk e-mailing assignments by company and started making easy money.

Again after taking them into confidence, the company started accepting huge deposits to the tune of lakhs of rupees. It collected crores of rupees through its branch offices at Nagpur, Amravati, Wardha, Chandrapur, Nashik and Pune, police said.

The managing director had announced that the amount invested by franchisees would be returned to them with high returns on Saturday.

The company had also announced that it would give a TVS Victor motorcycle as a first prize to the franchisee who would do maximum business.

The second prize was a TVS Scooty. It procured two brand new vehicles from the showroom and kept them in its head office. But before sunrise, managing director Rajprakash Durai, technical manager J Vighneshwar, branch manager Navin Kumar and their assistant Tagur wound up their business and fled with crores of rupees.