Ponzi scam mastermind had undergone kidney transplant

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26

Nirmal Singh Bhangoo (70), the mastermind behind one of the country’s largest Ponzi schemes, passed away in New Delhi on Sunday.

Bhangoo, chief of Pearls Group, was lodged in the Tihar Jail for the past five years. He was admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital after his health deteriorated at the jail.

Sources in the Tihar Jail said Bhangoo was suffering from several ailments such as hypertension. He recently underwent a kidney transplant operation. He was embroiled in a multi-billion rupee scam, which defrauded millions of investors in India.

Bhangoo, who was a milkman in Bela village, Ropar district, Punjab, later became an agent for Peerless, a chit fund company. Bhangoo later started his own company, Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGFL), which later evolved into Pearls Group. His companies, PACL and PGFL, became infamous for running Ponzi schemes under the guise of real estate projects.

The scam involved collecting funds from investors across several states, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, with the promise of high returns or land allotment within a specified period. However, the promised land never existed and the allotments were fictitious.

The CBI started the probe in 2015, leading to Bhangoo’s arrest the following year. The ED’s investigation, which followed the CBI’s case, resulted in the attachment of Australia-based assets belonging to Pearls Group and Bhangoo worth ~472 crore.

The SEBI also took action against PACL and its directors in 2014, ordering them to refund ~49,100 crore to the investors within three months.

When the company failed to comply, SEBI attached all bank accounts, demat accounts and mutual fund portfolios associated with PACL and its directors.