Mumbai, Oct 1 (Mumbai Mirror): Nearly three years after former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira was linked to the multi-crore QNet marketing scam, he surrendered in a special court along with three other suspects on Friday.
Ferreira, a Padma Bhushan recipient, was remanded in the custody of the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) till October 13.
Hong Kong-based QNET is accused of selling bogus products such as healing crystals and magnetic disks at high prices and enrolling customers into a pyramid scheme, promising them hefty returns for bringing in new members. The scam snared over 5 lakh investors, according to investigators.
Ferreira, 77, is accused of starting QNet’s operations in India through his firm Vihaan Direct Selling Pvt Ltd. The EOW had registered a first information report against QNet and Vihaan in 2013.
Ferreira had avoided arrest until now through an anticipatory bail application that travelled from one court to another. Finally last week, the Supreme Court rejected the plea and gave him and other suspects seven days to surrender.
Ferreira approached a city court on Thursday, the last day of the deadline, sought a few more hours. On Friday, he turned himself in at the special court set up under the Maharashtra Protection for Investors and Depositors (MPID) Act.
The former billiards champ’s lawyer, Amit Desai, argued that his custody was not required after all this time and that he had no active role in the affairs of Vihaan.
But special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat contended it was impossible that Ferreira and Malcom Desai, who held 80 per cent and 20 per cent stake in Vihaan, respectively, did not know about the company’s financial transactions.
“They persuaded gullible people into investing their life savings in illegal schemes. They promised people unachievable returns of Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore in a few years,” Gharat said. “They have given false statements of accounts and a false list of members/investors. Since the different list given at different times are discriminatory,”
Gharat further alleged that Ferreira and Malcomn diverted money from investors to offshore entities.
Apart from Ferreira and Malcom, company directors Madaral Balaji and Shrinivas Venkarao also surrendered on Friday. QNet’s India head, So far, 27 people have been arrested in the case.
While rejecting Ferreira’s anticipatory bail plea, Justice Mridula Bhatkar had observed: “I am of the view that they [EOW] need to investigate properly and more effectively to find out the money trail and from where the products are manufactured, also to check the correct addresses, bank accounts, networking of the company.”
Actor Boman Irani and his son Danesh have also been linked to the scam, though they have denied wrongdoing.
Once India’s pride, now an accused
Michael Ferreira, a three-time amateur world billiards champion, is recipient of the Padma Bhushan, Arjuna, Dronacharya and Shiv Chhatrapati awards. In December 1978, he created history by becoming the first amateur to make a 1000-point break in billiards. A year earlier, he had won his first world amateur billiards title in Melbourne.
In 1985, he lost the world championship to Geet Sethi, who replaced him as India’s next billiards great. His glorious run continued at the world open billiards championship in New Zealand where he won another gold.
Fondly called the Bombay Tiger, he infamously refused the Padma Shri in 1981 only because Sunil Gavaskar was conferred with the more prestigious Padma Bhushan, an award Ferreira would be honoured with two years later.