Mumbai: How smooth operator behind Rs 1K-cr scam duped investors

Someone we trusted betrayed us It will never be easy to trust someone again with our moneyrdquo says Bollywood actor Annu Kapoor who is among thousands of victims of Ritz Consultancyrsquos Amber Dalal who went incommunicado on March 14Dalal and Kapoor are residents of different buildings in Oshiwararsquos Windermere a huge complex with multiple towers Kapoor said he learned about Ritz via his sister and friends who claimed they were getting two per cent returns per month Lured by this he started investing with Dalal in 2016 and started getting prompt monthly returns This in turn convinced Kapoorrsquos entire family to invest in RitzFlat no 103 at Windermere complex Oshiwara Andheri West is owned by Amber and Alpana DalalldquoMy mother Anuradha Patel and our sons Kavan and Maahir and even I invested in Ritz till 2023 In all our family invested over Rs 1 crore with Dalalrdquo said Kapoorrsquos wife Anupama Despite such unusually high returns 24 per cent per annum the family did not find Dalal suspiciousBuilding trustldquoAmber had impressive communication skills and had mastered the art of gaining peoplersquos confidence through his actionsrdquo said Kapoor ldquoHe used to enter into a proper Memorandum of Understanding MoU with the investor on a 500rupee stamp paper saying the essential commodity investment is comparatively riskfree and that he will hand over a signed cheque for the principal amount which was sufficient for gaining trust of the investorrdquo he addedAsked if the cheques were dated Kapoor said the date field was left blank ldquoso that the validity of the cheque is maintainedrdquo ldquoMoreover between the 10th and 12th of every month the returns would be credited so nobody doubted himrdquo said KapoorKapoor was one of the few investors who Dalal dealt with directly His son Mithil managed most of the other investors and handled the back office The magnitude of the scam may run into over Rs 1000 crore as Amber had offices in Dubai US etc for many nonresident Indian NRI investors including professionals like chartered accountants advocates doctors and film industry folkReturns stoppedThe Kapoors are also worried about many elderly retired people including single mothers and widows who had invested their lifersquos savings with Dalal and were managing their monthly expenses from the returns which have stoppedUnfortunately for the Kapoors this is not the first time they have been duped Last year Anupamarsquos bag with foreign currency was snatched by baglifters near Paris In 2022 a new recruit at Kapoorrsquos office vanished with the cash he was asked to withdraw from the bank ldquoI have personally met senior officials at Oshiwara police station and at the Economic Offences Wing EOW and I hope that they soon apprehend the accused as with every passing day the chance of Dalal misappropriating our funds gets higherrdquo said KapoorlsquoVictims of greedrsquoKapoor admitted they have become victims of their own greed and it would not be easy for the family to trust anyone with their money any moreAnother investor requesting anonymity said ldquoI know many who with their families and distant relatives invested from R1 crore to over Rs 50 crore They are all maintaining silence Most of them had put in their lifersquos savings and some depended on the monthly returns for everyday expenses I have been pushed back by20 years in my life My family father and sister trusted my word and invested all their savings with Dalal Somewhere deep inside me I feel responsible for their lossesrdquoMany investors are now in the dark about the probe and are ignorant about the legal process relying solely on updates on a WhatsApp group of victimsldquoMost either live out of Mumbai or in foreign countries and are apprehensive about the case as the EOW have frozen around 36 bank accounts of Dalal It is hence imperative that Mumbai police give prompt updates on the investigationrdquo pointed out an investor