An NRI businessman named Sachin Joshi, who is currently residing in Mumbai, has lodged a complaint of cheating and fraudulence against actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra. Joshi claimed that he was duped by both when they were directors of the Satyug Gold Pvt. Ltd., a gold-trading company.
Joshi has lodged a criminal complaint of cheating, fraud and other charges against Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra and officials of SGPL such as Ganpati Chaudhary, Mohammed Saifi, and others with the Khar Police Station in Mumbai.
The NRI has claimed in the police complaint that he was duped by SGPL’S ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ that was launched in 2014. Joshi noted that under a five-year gold plan, the buyer of the gold which was sold under the ‘Satyug Gold Scheme’ was offered a ‘Satyug gold card’ at a discounted rate and promised a certain fixed quantity of gold redeemable after a five-year period.
As per Raj Kundra’s statements at the ‘gold dream’ launch, an investor who bought a certain sum of gold at the then-current rates with full advance payment will be entitled to ‘Satyug gold card’, that can be redeemable in stages with attractive discounts–15% after two years, 26% after three years, 30% after four years and 37% after five years.
Joshi’s spokesperson told IANS that he had purchased One kg gold for nearly Rs 18.58 lacs in March 2014 at then prices. It would be redeemable on or after March 25, 2019, at the promised discounts of the Satyug Gold Card.
The spokesperson explaining the scheme asserted that at current rates, the original investment would have fetched around Rs 44 lacs or more than double as today the gold prices crossed the Rs 4.4 million per kg mark.
When Joshi went to redeem his one-kg golden asset on the due date in March 2019, he found that the SGPL office in Bandra Kurla Complex in Suburban Mumbai was shut with no employees or representatives available there.
Upon enquiring, Joshi learned that the office of SGPL had been shut long ago, the website showed a new office address that is at Shalimar Morya Park in Andheri West. On visiting the new office, they were informed that the address did not belong to SGPL. After frequent searches on websites, Joshi eventually got the same response everywhere that office from where he bought gold don’t belong to SGPL.
In November 2019, Joshi’s representative happened to meet one of the company officials at the Malad West address 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.
Joshi was more shocked after he searched on the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs when he learned that Shetty and Kundra had resigned as directors of SGPL in May 2016 and November 2017 respectively.
Joshi said, “It became clear from all these facts 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.”
