Saradha Group financial scandal

Saradha Group

Former type	Privately owned
Industry	Financial services, infrastructure management, automobiles, manufacturing
Genre	Deposit mobilising company
Fate	Allegations that this consortium of companies is a Ponzi scheme
Founder	Sudipto Sen
Defunct	April 2013
Headquarters	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Key people	Sudipto Sen, Chairman and MD Debjani Mukherjee, , Director Kunal Ghosh, Media Div.
Number of employees	16,000+
Divisions	Saradha Realty Saradha Exports Global automobiles Saradha media group
Website	saradhagroup.biz

The Saradha Group financial scandal (Bengali: সারদা কেলেঙ্কারী) was a major financial scam and alleged political scandal caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies that was believed to be running collective investment schemes popularly but incorrectly referred to as chit funds. in Eastern India.

The group collected around ₹200 to 300 billion (US$4–6 billion) from over 1.7 million depositors before it collapsed in April 2013. In the aftermath of the scandal, the State Government of West Bengal where the Saradha Group and most of its investors were based instituted an inquiry commission to investigate the collapse. The State government also set up a fund of ₹5 billion (US$78 million) to ensure that low-income investors were not bankrupted.

The central government through the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate launched a multi-agency probe to investigate the Saradha scam and similar Ponzi schemes. In May 2014, the Supreme Court of India, inter-state ramifications, possible international money laundering, serious regulatory failures and alleged political nexus, transferred all investigations into the Saradha scam and other Ponzi schemes to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's federal investigative agency. Many prominent personalities were arrested for their involvement in the scam including two Members of Parliament (MP) - Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose, former West Bengal Director General of Police Rajat Majumdar, a top football club official Debabrata Sarkar, Sports and Transport minister in the – Madan Mitra.