Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra have been named in another alleged scam concerning the Satyug Gold Pvt. Ltd, a gold trading company of which they are former directors, reported IANS.
Sachiin J Joshi, a Non-Resident Indian businessman currently based in Mumbai, has lodged a criminal complaint of cheating, fraud and other charges against Shilpa, Raj and the officials of SGPL with the Khar Police Station.
Joshi has claimed in the complaint that he was reportedly lured and then cheated by SGPL’s ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’, launched around 2014.
When contacted, an official of Khar Police Station told IANS that “the complaint is currently under investigation”. Raj Kundra has denied the allegations calling them a “false narrative” and that he has received “no such complaint as claimed by the gentleman in question.”
He issued a statement that read:
“Just stating facts to correct a false narrative that’s doing rounds in the media. This is with reference to the news about a complaint filed by an NRI for losses suffered, following an investment in Satyug Gold Pvt Ltd. Firstly and most importantly, Shilpa and I have received no such complaint as claimed by the gentleman in question. The website has all the relevant details and contact information for those who want their queries answered. With all the assistance we’ve made available, it is quite underhanded to say that there was no remedy. I would request the media to perform a cursory fact check before publishing information and not be an accessory in misleading viewers and readers.”
According to Joshi, under the five-year gold plan sold as ‘Satyug Gold Sheme’ the buyer was offered a ‘Satyug Gold Card’ at a discounted rate and promised a certain fixed quantity of gold redeemable after a five-year period.
At the ‘gold dream’ launch some time back, Raj Kundra said that an investor who bought a certain amount of gold at the then current rate with full advance payment would be entitled to a Satyug Gold Card, redeemable in stages with lucrative discounts -15 per cent after two years, 26 per cent after three years, 30 per cent after four years and 37 per cent after five years.
Company Associated with Shilpa & Raj Accused of Fraud
Joshi had purchased one kg gold for nearly Rs 18.58 lakhs in March 2014 at the then prevailing rates. It would be redeemable on or after March 25, 2019 at the promised discount upon presenting the card to the SGPL, his spokesperson told IANS.
He further explained that at the current rate the original investment would have fetched around Rs 44 lakhs or more than double as the gold prices have crossed the Rs 4.40 million per kg mark.
However, when Joshi attempted to redeem his one-kilo golden asset in March last year, he discovered that the SGPL office in Bandra, suburban Mumbai, was shut. Upon enquiring he found out that the SGPL website showed a new office address in Andheri.
When Joshi's team visited the new office, they were informed that the addressed did not belong to SGPL.
Further online searches and scanning the company’s annual returns revealed more office addresses, but Joshi received the same reply that they did not belong to SGPL.
Multiple calls to the company’s help desk and customer care yielded no results.
In November 2019, Joshi's representative chanced upon one of the company officials, who claimed that it was not possible to redeem the claim as the company was processing multiple claims, and suggested he should return in December 2019.
A search on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website pertaining to the company showed that Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra had resigned as the company directors in May 2016 and November 2017 respectively.
“It became clear that SGPL was a fraudulent entity being used to run the fake ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ using the name of celebs like Shilpa Shetty. I have suffered a loss of Rs 18.58 lakh on my gold investment,” Joshi told IANS.
(With inputs from: IANS)
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