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Saradha Group financial scandal is a financial scam caused by collapse of a ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of Indian companies running a wide variety of collective investment schemes (popularly but incorrectly referred in rural India as chit fund) in Eastern India. The group collapsed in April 2013 causing an estimated loss of between INR 20,000 - 30,000 crores (4 - 6 billion USD). In the aftermath of this financial scandal the State government of West Bengal set up an inquiry commission to investigate the collapse and have also announced setting up a fund of INR 500 crores to ensure that low income investors are not bankrupted. The Union Government also mobilised its resources and launched a multi agency probe to investigate Saradha scam as well as other similar ponzi schemes.

Background

India comprises of mainly low income rural population with low access to formal banking facilities. This financial exclusion created a web of parallel informal banking with moneylenders at the centre who charged exorbitant rates of interest, this was greatly curbed by various Moneylenders Act promulgated by different state governments in the 1950s. However broader failures in India’s banking sector to replace the moneylender gave rise to fly by night operators who mostly ran ponzi schemes in various disguises. West Bengal with a relatively prosperous rural economy had largely relied on small savings schemes run by Indian Postal Service, however the low rates of interest in these savings schemes had in 1980s and 90s given rise to ponzi scandals in pseudo profit making and speculative ventures like Sanchayita Investments, Overland Investment Company, Verona Credit and Commercial Investment Company, Shanchayani Investment Company etc. which wiped off close to 1000 crores INR in investor wealth. However in spite of a history of ponzi scams in Bengal, in the last decade a steadily decreasing interest rates in the small saving schemes, lack of financial literacy and investor awareness, political patronage, absence of adequate legal deterrence and regulatory arbitrage led to a mushrooming of companies which raised public money through channels like collective investment schemes, non-convertible debentures and preference shares, or hoax instruments such as teak bonds or potato bonds. Data collated by the government shows that more than 8 out of 10 multi-level marketing and finance schemes against which authorities in India have received complaints are run out of West Bengal, giving the state the sordid title of 'Ponzi capital of India'. It is estimated that these ponzi funds have all-together amassed around Rs.10 lakh crore (200 billion USD) from unsuspecting depositors in Eastern India.

Modus operandi of Saradha

Financial operations

Companies belonging to Saradha Group were incorporated from 2006, the group name is a cacography of the name of one of the most revered spiritual icon of the region Sarada Devi, the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal. The 'association' with the name of a revered icon gave the group a veneer of respectability. Like an archetypal ponzi scam, Saradha group promised astronomical returns in fanciful but credible investments; it recruited rural youth who had influence and good reputation in the community to act as agents who would collect funds from various localities. It thus created a complex agent pyramid and enticed them by giving away between 25%-40% of the deposit collected to the agents as commission fee and other lucrative gifts. To keep ahead of regulators, the group frequently changed its strategy and used a nexus of companies to launder money. Initially the numerous companies were used to collect money from public by issuing secured debentures and redeemable preferential bonds. However under Indian Securities regulations and section 67 of Indian Companies Act, enforced by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), a company cannot raise capital from more than 50 persons without issuing proper prospectus accompanied with balance sheet, audited accounts and taking proper permission from SEBI. On being challenged by SEBI, in around 2009, the group started opening numerous companies (over 300 by some estimate) to create more cross-holdings etc. and have tiered corporate structure to make it difficult to pin blame on any one company. However by 2010 under relentless investigative pressure from SEBI, the group changed its modus operandi and started to raise capital in various states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Chattisgarh under variations of collective investment schemes (CIS) like tourism packages, forward travel and hotel booking credit transfer, real estate, infrastructure finance, motor cycle manufacturing etc. The investors were rarely informed about the true nature of the investments and were instead told that they would get high returns after a fixed period, at other times the investment was mis-sold as a form of 'chit fund', as chit funds were regulated by state government under the Chit Fund Act, 1982, SEBI warned the state government of West Bengal to take appropriate steps. Later in 2012, SEBI realised that these were not chit funds but are actually CIS and asked Saradha Group to immediately stop operating these forms of investment schemes without taking prior permission from SEBI. However Saradha group continued flouting SEBI instruction and carried on its financial schemes till its eventual collapse in April 2013.

Building brand and non-financial businesses

Like other historic ponzi funds (for example Russian MMM), Saradha group invested heavily and meticulously in building its brand. With enormous funds at its disposal Saradha invested in high visibility sectors like Bengali film industry, where it roped in famous actress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of parliament Satabdi Roy as its brand ambassador. Saradha group also recruited Kunal Ghosh another Trinamool Congress Member of parliament to act as the CEO of the media group. Under Kunal Ghosh the group went on an unprecedented spree of buying and establishing local television channels and newspapers. By 2013 it employed over 1500 journalists and owned seven news papers in four languages: Bengal Post, Seven Sisters Post (English dailies), Kolom (a Urdu daily), Sakalbela, Prabhat Varta, Parama (Bengali dailies) and Azad Hind (a Hindi daily); two Bengali news channels Tara Newz and Channel 10 and two Bengali general entertainment channels: Tara Muzic and Tara Bangla. In 2011, the group bought Global Automobiles, a heavily indebted motor cycle company. The company stopped production in 2011, yet kept 150 workers on payroll who would 'pretended to work whenever truckloads and busloads of prospective depositors of Saradha Realty visited the plant for a first-hand check before investing.' As part of its corporate social responsibility program, Saradha group donated motorcycles to the Kolkata Police and pulled off a public relations coup when on 19 July 2011 it persuaded Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal to launch its ambulances and motorcycles for the Jangalmahal area of West Midnapore. To further etch itself in the socio-cultural milieu of Bengal, Saradha Group invested in both Mohun Bagan A.C. (INR 1.8 crore in 2010-11) and East Bengal F.C. (INR 3.5 crore since 2010), the best known Bengal football clubs and bitter city rivals. The group also generously sponsored or funded various Durga Puja celebrations organised by political leaders.

Political patronage

Several political leaders belonging to Trinamool Congress, the incumbent ruling party of West Bengal like members of Parliament Kunal Ghosh (who drew a salary of INR 16 lakhs per month from Saradha Group) and Srinjoy Bose (also the owner of Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin), son of Swapan Sadhan Bose were directly related to media operations of Saradha group. Its legislator and transport minister Madan Mitra headed the employees union of Saradha group and is on record publicly praising the company and appealing people to deposit their savings with the company. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Health and education minister of Assam was also alleged to have profited from the scam in lieu of political support and protection. It has been alleged that the ponzi scheme survived for so long because of continued political patronage.

Key People

• Sudipto Sen is the Chairman and managing director of the Saradha Group. Very little is known about Sudipta Sen. He is in his mid-fifties, a reclusive man, described as a soft spoken, charming yet forceful orator. Some say he is the son of a man called Bhudeb Sen, who used to run a chit fund called Sanchayani in the 1980s and which went bust 10 years ago. He was originally known as Shankaraditya Sen and in 1970s took part in the Naxalite movement in West Bengal, later in 1990s he changed his name, alleged to have undergone plastic surgery and became associated with land development projects in South Kolkata fringes. The land bank he formed at the turn of the century became the initial vehicle for enticing early customers into his ponzi scheme. After being on run for at least 10 days, he was arrested from Kashmir on 23 April 2013.

• Debjani Mukhopadhdhay is one of the executive directors of Saradha Group and had the power to sign cheques on behalf of the group. She is in her early thirties and had trained to be an air hostess but later joined the group in 2010 as a receptionist and rose rapidly to be the 'number two' in the group hierarchy. She spoke English well and was known for her taste in expensive sarees. She was also well known in her locality for being highly generous to the local club and community. She was also arrested from Kashmir along with Sudipto Sen and another official of the group.

Collapse and unravelling of the scam

Since 2009 a disparate group of political leaders like Member of Parliament Somendra Nath Mitra and Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury (who however later mysteriously withdrew his protest letter), West Bengal consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pandey, cutting across party lines, had warned the state and central government about the reckless and fraudulent nature of the collective investment schemes operating in West Bengal. However no executive actions were taken except for the long ongoing SEBI investigation. The RBI and the state-level bankers’ committee (SLBC), West Bengal, also cautioned the state government both in public and in closed-door meetings. On 7 December 2012 RBI governor D Subbarao said in Kolkata that the state government was supposed to initiate suo motu action against companies which were indulging in financial malpractices. Like most ponzi scams, Saradha scam also started unravelling when the inflow of the cash became less than the outflow, this started happening around January 2013, Sudipta Sen toured around Bengal to calm the frayed nerves of his agents and depositors. However the crisis became unstoppable by March 2013 and on 6 April 2013 Sudipto Sen wrote a 18 page confessional letter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) where he stated that he not only paid hefty sums to TMC leaders, but also an influential Congress leader in Assam and wife of a senior Congress minister in the Centre. He also stated that TMC leader Kunal Ghosh forced him to enter into loss making media ventures and that he was blackmailed to sell one of his channels to Kunal Ghosh at rockbottom price. Soon after posting the letter on around 10 April 2013 Sudipto Sen went on a run. By 15 April 2013, the matter had snowballed into a full blown crisis with depositors and agents realising that they had been duped. On the 17 April around 600 collection agents claiming to be associated with Saradha group assembled at the headquarters of TMC and demanded government intervention. On 18 April Mamata Banerjee cleared arrest of Sudipto Sen to rein in growing agitation. From 20 April onwards the regional media of Bengal gave non stop wide coverage catapulting the news of the biggest ponzi scam in India to National newsrooms and derisively dubbed it as 'Bonzi' (a play on words Ponzi and Bengal). After a massive manhunt, Sudipto Sen was finally arrested from Kashmir on 23 April 2013. Incidentally on the same day SEBI opined that chain marketing and forward contracts are forms of CIS and asked Saradha Group to immediately desist from raising any further capital and return all deposits by three months. The mood of despondency across Bengal was aptly captured as 'The entire Dakshin Barasat today looks like it was hit by a cyclone. Every home has a bankrupt depositor or a fugitive agent. People who were friends have turned enemies. Happy households have become miserable. Students have stopped going to school. Traders have lost interest in opening shutters. There is a sense of treachery that has replaced the warmth of a neighbourhood. Suddenly everything has become vicious.'

Aftermath and reactions

State government reaction

As a knee jerk reaction to the unravelling of the enormity of the scam, on 22 April 2013 West Bengal government announced that a four-member judicial inquiry commission headed by Shyamal Kumar Sen, retired Chief justice of Allahabad High Court would probe the scam. Mamata Banerjee is also reported to have commented “ja gechhey ta gechhey (whatever has gone has gone)” deepening the gloom of depositors. The same day Assam Police sealed five offices of Saradha Group amid protests by depositors, agents and employees and accusations that a minister, a former DGP and government officials had facilitated the group’s business ventures in the state of Assam. On 24 April 2013, Mamata Banerjee announced a Rs 500-crore relief fund for the worst-affected poor depositors of the Saradha Group, signalling a 10 per cent additional tax on tobacco products to raise the money and in jest asked smokers to light up “a little more” to fill the mercy purse. However this 'joke' created a controversy as anti-tobacco group expressed 'shock' that move to hike price was accompanied by suggestions that people should use more tobacco. The West Bengal government also set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to expeditiously probe the criminal investigation.

Central government reaction

In March 2013, Union corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot said in the Lok Sabha that his ministry has received complaints against West Bengal's Chakra Infrastructure, icore E-Service, MPS Group, Prayag Group, Rose Valley Group, Tower Infotech, Vibgyor Group, URO Group, Saradha Group and many others for their involvement in Ponzi or multi-layer-marketing schemes. However no action was taken, it was only after the unravelling of the scam that a host of measures were announced. On 25 April 2013, Income Tax department and Ministry of Corporate Affairs started separate investigation into Saradha Scam and the other similar ponzi funds masquerading as NBFCs or CIS. On the same day the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a money laundering case, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), at its Guwahati office as the Assam police has registered an FIR against the Saradha group to probe the allegations of financial irregularities by numerous depositors against it.

Political reactions and protests

There have been ongoing street protests around West Bengal, sometimes it has resulted in ransacking of offices of various ponzi funds. The crash of the ponzi scheme and the publication of the letter written by Sudipto Sen led to a barrage of cross party accusations, CPM accused TMC of hobnobbing with the 'chit fund', TMC on the other hand alleged that Union Minister of Finance's wife Nalini Chidambaram had taken lawyers fee from Saradha Group to incorporate its companies and should be investigated, TMC also blamed CPM for letting ponzi funds grow in Bengal. CPM demanded that the investigation should be done by CBI as many TMC leaders are involved in the scam thus an independent probe by state agencies is impossible.

Judicial reactions

On 22 April 2013, Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in Guwahati High Court, by RTI activist Akhil Gogoi against Saradha and other such chit funds and in Calcutta High Court by advocate Basabi Roy Chowdhury seeking CBI investigation against the Saradha Group and other chit-fund companies. On 25 April, responding to the PIL, a division bench of Calcutta High Court comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that since the ramifications of the scam included other states, a central agency would, perhaps, do justice to the investigation. However it gave state government one week to submit its investigation report to see if the probe is conducted in a fair manner.

Macroeconomic and microeconomic effects

Suicides by victims of the scam

Since the breaking out of the news of the financial scam, the following agents and depositors have committed suicide:

• Tapan Biswas (36, depositor, Balrampur, Purulia), by hanging himself from the ceiling of his house, on April,26
• Dilip Mandal (55, agent, Delsinha village near Phalta, South 24 Parganas), by consuming pesticides, on April 25
• Urmila Pramanik (50, depositor, Baruipur, South 24 Parganas), by setting herself on fire, on April 20
• Yadav Majhi (33, agent, Mayabazar, Durgapur, Burdwan), by hanging himself from the ceiling of his house, on April 19

Criminal prosecution and ongoing investigations

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