HYDERABAD: Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of investors across the country, including many from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, have been allegedly duped of crores of rupees by the management of Falcon Invoice Discounting (FID), a P2P (peer-to-peer) web platform that promised investors high returns by turning unpaid invoices of established companies into cash advances.
With the company abruptly shutting its offices in the city, leaving only a note pasted on the door of its swanky office in a building housing IT companies in Hyderabad’s Hi-Tec City, distressed investors—many of whom had trusted the platform with their life savings—have been left in the lurch.
Cyberabad police have filed three criminal cases against the company’s management, led by its chairman Amardeep Kumar, accusing them of fraud and breach of trust.
As many as 20 individuals, including Amardeep, Yogender Singh, Aryan Singh, and Anitha Kumar, have been charged with breach of trust and cheating.
The company, which has offices in Dubai, Austin, US, and Hyderabad, is estimated to have collected hundreds of crores of rupees from investors, but so far, 60 investors have come forward with complaints of being deceived.
TOI has learnt that apart from Hyderabad, investors in other cities like Bengaluru have also filed police complaints against the company.
Falcon used to operate via a mobile app and its website, putting up invoices of established companies for raising funds from individual investors, many of whom have invested more than Rs 1 crore over the past 2-3 years.
What raised the red flag was when the company began delaying payments from the second week of January this year and shut down its office on February 10 after some panic-stricken investors rushed to its office to demand their money back and allegedly damaged the office premises.
Sources said, investors were given various excuses for nearly 10 days, leading them to believe that operations would resume. However, their worst fears came true when they found the office locked with no further communication.
Police investigations revealed that key evidence, such as hard disks containing crucial data, was missing.
The company had promised a 24% return on investments, which now seems to have been part of a larger scam.
While most of the investors are in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, there are investors from states such as Rajasthan, Haryana, Kerala, Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab and even Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Ladakh.
Special teams have been set up to track down the accused and to know if they have fled abroad or are still in India.
The closure has left many investors in shock as they are unable to get back their money or get any answers from the company.
“One investor, a doctor, reported a loss of Rs 5 crore. The complaints were made in batches—56 investors lost Rs 21 crore, while four investors from Delhi reported a loss of Rs 6 crore,” sources in Cyberabad police told TOI.
On Wednesday, TOI contacted several investors from Hyderabad as well as other cities such as Delhi, Rohtak, Coimbatore and Bengaluru in the reception area.
“Investors have been coming since the past few days. Falcon’s office has been closed since Monday when some angry investors damaged the office property. On Tuesday, cops searched the office and locked it. The company has not even paid the office rent since January,” said a senior facilities management staffer of the building.
A Bengaluru-based investor, who has been investing since 2022 and lost over Rs 3 crore, said Falcon always put up invoices of established companies and paid investors on time, which is why he began investing higher amounts till it defaulted on January 10.
An investor from Rohtak said he learnt about Falcon through family members and has lost over Rs 19 lakh. His co-brother, a more recent investor, has lost around Rs 2 lakh. Both flew in from Delhi on Tuesday after the company defaulted on their payments.
Over 1,000 anxious investors have now come together on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram to seek justice.