Kochi: Thrissur-based Highrich Online Shoppe Pvt Limited illegally raised Rs 1,157 crore from the public as membership fees for its pyramid scheme run under the guise of an online grocery business, said the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).
The central agency provisionally pegged the size of the fraud in its order to freeze 55 bank accounts with Rs 212.46 crore belonging to the company, its associated companies, and their promoter couple K D Prathapan and Sreena Prathapan.
Of the Rs 1,157.32 crore alleged illegal income, Highrich placed 98% or Rs 1,138.11 crore under the head of the company’s own cryptocurrency HRCC, ED said in the order. The remaining Rs 19.21 crore was placed under the head of ‘grocery pin’, ED said.
The company, however, recorded the deposits as ‘purchase consignment advance’ in the books of accounts for FY2023-2024, it said.
On January 23 and 24, a team of officers led by S G Kavitkar, Assistant Director of ED’s Kochi Zonal Office, searched the offices of Highrich Online Shoppe and Highrich Smartech Pvt Limited at Neruvissery in Thrissur’s Arattupuzha.