Published On : Sat, Dec 14th, 2013

More skeletons tumble out of Wasankar group’s investment scam; Documents turn out fake

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Nagpur News.

The outgoing year has seen a lot on the crime chart, with the cases chain snatching, murders and theft topping the order. But the year also saw the decline of tall investment giants in the city who promised high returns against deposit. Hordes of gullible investors lost their hard earned money into dubious ponzi schemes of Shreesurya group and now Wasankar Wealth Management which went a step ahead in duping investors of crores of rupees.

As Nagpur Today dug deeper it was revealed that Wasankar Group has been involved in collecting money from depositors without any proper authorization for the past many years but he managed to cover up his ill doings. It was only after an investor came forward and unmasked their ponzi schemes that Wasankar’s major financial fraud surfaced. Investors alleged that Wasankar Investment Company had promised to pay double and thrice the invested money. In the process, the group has blatanly violated Companies Act, Income Tax Act, Acceptance of Deposit Rules and Maharashtra Stamp Duty Act along with regulations of SEBI and Reserve Bank of India.

A leading daily newspaper Lokmat has been digging in the details of Wasankar Group and the fraud cases. But, a major breakthrough, an investor came forward and provided documents and fraud papers of Wasankar Group. The investor, on the promise of anonymity, informed that he had invested Rs 8.5 lakh in Wasankar Group.

Wasankar’s dubious tool –  Perk and T-48

Wasankar Investment Company offered two schemes namely ‘Perk’ and ‘T-48’. Under the ‘Perk’ scheme, the Group offered to return 2.5 times of the principle money in 2.5 years. In the other scheme ‘T-48’, the investors were offered a handsome return of 3 times the invested money in four years. In addition to these, Wasankar Group offers regular yearly, half-yearly and quarterly investments schemes. The documents provided by the investor clearly claims false schemes and clearly violating ISE Security Sub-Brokers Bonds.

60% interest !!!!

It is surprising to learn that under the ‘Perk’ scheme, Wasankar Group lured the investors to give a handsome interest of 5% every month which nets a total of 60% per annum. The over inflated rate of interest even did not let any suspicion among the investors who fell prey to the bait and invested lakhs of rupees in anticipation of getting huge returns. Under the ‘T-48’, Wasankar offers 4.16% interest totaling 50% per annum interest to the investors. In the yearly schemes, the group offers 25-32.5% interest. It must be learnt that no investment scheme could provide such high returns for their investments. And, no company could earn profit after giving such high returns.

The said investor had invested Rs 1 lakh under the ‘T-48’ scheme on December 31, 2012 to earn thrice the sum but all his hopes shattered when he realized that he had knocked the wrong door.

Two companies under Wasankar group

The said investor informed that Wasankar Group has two companies under its name – Wasankar Investments and Wasankar Wealth Management Limited. Prashant Wasankar started Wasankar Investments 22-23 years ago to gain license for share broker. Now, the license has been transferred in the name of Wasankar Wealth Management.

Documents prove fraud by Wasankar

The documents presented to Nagpur Today by one of the investors prove that Wasankar Group accepted money in the name of Wasankar Investments. However, the veracity of the documents is under suspicion, given the fact that instead of proper stamped documents, the investors were handed over a printed copy of ‘Certificate of Investment’. The self stamped copy has only name of the investor, the money invested and the date of amount recovery from the company. However, it is interesting to note that no company name was mentioned in this print out copy. Although, a rubber-stamp of the company was given on the copy.

Smartly channelized cheques

The investors revealed that the first part of their investments were received in the name of Wasankar Investments, the next cheque is directed to the Indian Overseas Bank savings account of Dr Prashant Wasankar. However, this seems that the savings account cheques and Certificate of Investment were meant to handle the fraud cases.

Prashant Wasankar’s confession

Prashant Wasankar, on the request to clarify his stand over the issue, met some media persons to clear the air. He confessed that the documents presented by the investor were true and also identified his signature on the papers. Clearing his side, Wasankar informed that every share broker provides such receipts to their investor. However, no broker is liable to receive the ISE Security. Thus, receipts of Wasankar Investments were given to the investors, Dr Prashant Wasankar explained. However, Wasankar fumbled when the media persons informed him that there were share brokers who received the amount under ISE’s name and which were in a pretty much legal way.

Questions raised over Wasankar’s intentions

Wasankar could not answer any of the other questions and maintained silence when he was asked

– Why no revenue stamp is available on the certificate of investment?

– Why the return cheques  were not given from the current account of Wasankar Investments and are given through his savings account.

–  How the company could provide 50-60% interest in short span of time?

– No share broker could predict the profit-loss in the business then how come Wasankar Group assures the high returns to the customers?

::: Rajeev Khushwaha