ED unearths another scam six times bigger than Saradha

The probe over Saradha chit fund scam may be dwarfed with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) finding that another bogus scheme in West Bengal, the Rose Valley, to be at least six times bigger.

ED sources told a news agency on Wednesday that compared with Saradha, Rose Valley’s mobilisation of money from the market has been much higher.

“The Rose Valley scam is much bigger in magnitude than Saradha. It is probably six times bigger as Rose Valley had collected deposits of around Rs 15,000 crore from the public,” a source in the directorate told the news agency.

Despite the scale of the Rose Valley scam, Saradha scam received more public attention due to the involvement of high profile people and political leaders.

Pointing out that the agency is yet to gauge the full scale of the Rose Valley scam, the source said, “For instance, we’ve unearthed so far 10 lakh accounts for the Saradha Group.
There could be more which is yet to be ascertained.”  The central agency froze around 2,500 accounts belonging to Rose Valley in September to track the scam’s money trail.
Sources in the probe agencies told Deccan Herald that the flashy lifestyle of Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu caught their attention.

Kundu lives in one of the upscale residential complexes in Kolkata, drives a Rolls Royce Phantom and owns several properties both in the country and abroad.  ED questioned Kundu on October 17 and refused the chairman’s request to unfreeze the 2,500 Rose Valley accounts.

Kundu wanted the accounts released saying he wanted to pay the salary for his employees, but the ED refused to heed his plea.