Haryana man held in Hyderabad MLM fraud, Rs 3 crore frozen

Hyderabad police arrested a Haryana-based man in a multi-level marketing fraud involving around Rs 600 crore. Authorities seized a luxury car and froze Rs 3 crore, while investigations continue to track other suspects and victims across multiple locations

Hyderabad: In connection with a multi-level marketing (MLM) fraud, the Hyderabad police on Sunday arrested a man from Haryana and seized a Mercedes Benz car from him, while freezing Rs 3 crore in different accounts maintained by him and the company.

The arrested man, Harish Kumar Singla (61), a resident of Gurugram, Haryana, worked as the country sales manager of Forever Living Imports (India) Private Limited.

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DCP (Charminar) Khareh Kiran Prabhakar said Harish Kumar duped people to the tune of Rs 600 crore through the MLM fraud. He had introduced different schemes and, with the help of his associates, cheated around a lakh victims on the pretext of huge commission on joining new members in the company and selling the company’s products.

The victims are from different places such as Hyderabad, Bhupalapally, Warangal, Jangaon and others. Last month, Mirchowk police had arrested three persons, Mohd Akram, Mohd Nouman Raza and Mohd Aslam, who worked as local agents for Harish and managed a company, Achiever’s Club, and established an office at Karmanghat.

“Youngsters aged between 18 and 24 years joined the schemes offered by Achiever’s Club, a subsidiary of Forever Living Company. Each of them paid Rs 30,000 as joining and membership fee, and they were provided different products and asked to recruit more people to get commission,” said the official.

Several of the victims, who hailed from poor families and in hope of getting huge commission, took loans and paid Rs 30,000. “A call centre was also set up with 60 persons at Karmanghat by the company, and the tele-callers were provided with a list of gullible victims and asked to lure them,” said Khareh Kiran Prabhakar.

Three cases were registered against the company and its staff in the city and the investigation is going on. A few more suspects who are involved in the case are absconding, and efforts are on to nab them.