Acting on a complaint filed by an NGO, the AP police have also frozen bank accounts of two franchisees of Speak Asia operating in the state and seized laptops, desktop computers, bank pass books and other material related to their MLM activities

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Andhra Pradesh police has arrested two persons running a franchisee of Speak Asia online Pte Ltd and frozen their bank accounts. Vijaywada-based Corporate Fraud Watch Society, a non-government organisation (NGO) had filed a complaint against the company, its promoters, directors, secretaries, representatives, employees and distributors.

In a statement, Dr Mahender Kumar Rathod, superintendent of police, economic offences wing, CID, Andhra Pradesh, said, "The CID once again appeals to the general public not to believe the deceitful promises given by this type of companies. It is pertinent to say that the amount of Rs3 lakh deposited by the franchise in AP have been frozen by the Reserve Bank of India since the company has no authorisation/registration under the Companies Act."

Syama Sundar, secretary of the Corporate Frauds Watch Society had filed the complaint, following which the police, arrested Devireddy (D) Srinivas Reddy and Lanka Venkata Ayyappa (LVA) Swamy on Sunday. Both were operating franchises of Speak Asia in the state. The police also froze their bank accounts and seized their laptops, desktop computers, bank pass books and other material pertaining to MLM activities. The additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Vijaywada, has sent both, Mr Reddy and Mr Swamy to judicial custody.

D Srinivas Reddy was working as a chartered accountant in a private company before joining and becoming a franchise of Speak Asia, about five months back. He had confessed to enrolled three panellists and the police are further analysing his laptop. LVA Swamy is a computer technician. He joined and become franchisee of Speak Asia along with Mr Reddy. However, he was using Mr Reddy's office and facilities for all his transactions with the company, the police said. 

On 25th June, the Vijaywada unit of the CID conducted a surprise check under the supervision of deputy superintendent, YV Ramana Kumar, on the residence of Mr Reddy and Mr Swamy.

The Andhra Pradesh police had registered a case under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 4, 5 and 6, read with Section 2(c), 3 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

In Andhra Pradesh alone, around 30,000 persons were enrolled with Speak Asia. The company has no registration in India under the Companies Act 1956. Likewise, Speak Asia has been running the money circulation business illegally without any authorisation from the competent authority in India. "This is a bogus company having 150-170 franchises in India, among them the two above mentioned persons are from AP," the police statement said.

Moneylife has reported on how the Kerala state government is coming down heavily on "get-rich-quick" schemes, mushrooming across the state. The crime branch of the Kerala police had arrested promoters of two such schemes, Tycoon Empire International and Bizarre group of companies. (Read: "Kerala gets tough with money swindlers and MLM companies".)

One of our readers has informed that as part of its ongoing operation to curb dubious MLM schemes, the Kerala police banned the meeting of Amway, a popular MLM company. According to the reports, about 300 distributors of Amway had gathered at a hotel in Thrissur. However, the police declined to give them any permission for a meeting. The Kerala director general of police has also cautioned people against the illegal network marketing.

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