Will Shahrukh Khan be questioned about his involvement with Rose Valley?

Moneylife Digital Team 01 October 2014

Enforcement Directorate has alleged that funds transferred between Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies and Rose Valley, the MLM company from West Bengal, were more than what was mentioned in their deal

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that the amount of funds transferred between Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies and Rose Valley were more than what was mentioned in the deal inked between them, says a report published in Bengali daily Bartaman on Monday. Red Chillies owns the T20 cricket team Knight Riders. Rose Valley is one of well-known chit fund schemes of Kolkata. Moneylife had written about Rose Valley and murky business of multi-level marketing companies from West Bengal (http://www.moneylife.in/article/will-rose-valleys-clones-flourishing-with-cpms-help-come-under-the-lens-now/12991.html ). During Communist Party of India (CPI) regime in West Bengal, the company was everywhere as sponsors of prime time news, at every major event and finally as the promoter of a brand new channel.

In that report, we had pointed out that collectively, chain-marketing schemes, like Rose Valley, Icore Group MPS Group and Saradha group were whispered to have raised over Rs10,000 crores, mostly from lower-middle class people in West Bengal and Tripura, both communist-ruled states. With that money they have bought media space and acquired legitimacy.

Rose Valley did not even find it necessary to cloak its insurance MLM business—its name, itself—Rose Valley Chain Marketing System Ltd is a dead giveaway. Rose Valley, certified by Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) is a corporate agent of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) since 2002.

Coming back to the deal between Rose Valley and Red Chillies, according to Bartaman report, the deal was valued at Rs10 crore but the ED has apparrently discovered transactions far in excesss of that. The investigators are trying to find if there were other ways in which the Rose Valley authorities tried got favour from the actor apart from the agreement, the report said. Shahrukh Khan had campaigned for Rose Valley's hotel business.

Under its 'Ashirvad' scheme, Rose Valley mobilised Rs1,207 crore by selling 508,792 plots, but handed over only 9,045 plots. While the company claims to have a land bank in several upcoming and industrial areas of West Bengal, the question is, how did they get access to all those vast stretches of land that are traditionally used for agriculture?

As Moneylife has reported earlier (http://www.moneylife.in/article/heres-another-company-thats-openly-flouting-irda-norms-on-prohibition-of-chain-marketing-of-insurance-products/5445.html), Rose Valley Chain Marketing System, which is a corporate agent for LIC since 2002, had openly violated rules of IRDA. As for the company's insurance business, there was no answer to the question about who will be responsible to the investors if the company collapses. Their media connections have ensured that no details are leaked out about their goings-on. Rose Valley group is not rated by a credit rating agency either.

Comments