Shreyas Talpade, Alok Nath booked in fresh investment fraud case

Shreyas Talpade, Alok Nath booked in fresh investment fraud case

A new case has been registered against Bollywood actors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath for allegedly misleading investors under a cooperative society scheme. The two, along with 22 others, have been accused of promoting fraudulent investment plans through the Loni Urban Multi-State Credit and Thrift Cooperative Society. Both actors had served as brand ambassadors for the organization, which is now under investigation for duping depositors.

According to the complaint filed by Babli, a resident of Baghpat, the society lured investors by promising high returns through fixed and recurring deposit schemes. It presented itself as a safe and trustworthy financial institution, operating under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act since 2016 across several states including Haryana. However, as per reports, payments to investors began to stall in 2023, raising suspicions about its legitimacy.

This fresh FIR was filed at a city police station and adds to an ongoing series of legal troubles for the two actors. Both Talpade and Nath had earlier received protection from arrest from the Supreme Court in connection with a similar case linked to a questionable marketing scheme in Haryana. In September, a bench led by Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan directed that no coercive action should be taken against the actors until the next hearing, following Nath’s plea for relief.

In a previous complaint, filed by Vipul Antil of Sonipat, the two actors were accused of promoting another cooperative entity—Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society Ltd—as brand ambassadors. Antil claimed that their public endorsement had convinced several people to invest in the company’s financial schemes. That case too involved allegations of fraud and breach of trust under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

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Investigators have said the society adopted a multi-level marketing model, using aggressive advertising to attract rapid investment. Initially, the company paid returns on time, creating the illusion of reliability, but as funds expanded, the payouts reportedly dried up. Authorities suspect that investor money was diverted instead of being reinvested, a common pattern in pyramid-style operations.

The ongoing probe aims to determine the exact role played by the actors in promoting and legitimizing the schemes. While both Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath maintain that they were only hired for promotional purposes and had no operational involvement, complainants argue that their celebrity endorsement misled thousands of small investors into trusting the fraudulent institutions. The investigation continues as new complaints surface from across multiple states.