Speak Asia country head, 5 others held in multi-crore scam

The Crime branch of Mumbai police today arrested six persons, including the country head of Speak Asia, in connection with the over Rs 2,200-crore online marketing firm scam in which lakhs of investors were duped. "The country head of Speak Asia Sanjeev Mehta was arrested from Mumbai and five others were held from elsewhere," Mumbai police spokesperson DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni said. All the accused have been remanded in police custody till February 7, he said.

Speak Asia, which was registered in Singapore, was introduced in India in early 2010. The company had promised lucrative returns through a multi marketing pyramid model. The online survey marketing company sold web subscription for Rs 11,000 each and in return the investor had to fill survey forms, which were later found to be fake, for certain MNCs for promised annual payment of Rs 52,000.

After paying few initial investors, Speak Asia wrapped up its operation in India around mid-2011. The company duped over 24 lakh investors. The amount of scam went up to Rs 2,276 crore.

A number of cases had been registered in different states. According to police, Speak Asia had remitted over Rs 900 crore to Singapore. The money was sent from India to the banks in Singapore and from there to Dubai, Italy and UK.

However, the money came back from UK again to UAE (Dubai) and to India.