The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth Rs 757.77 crore belonging to Amway, a direct marketing company. This company is accused of selling its scheme to lakhs of people with lucrative promises and earning crores of rupees from it. In a statement issued by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday, it was said, ‘Amway India used to tell people how they can become rich by adding new members. No product was sold through this. The ED said that certain products were used to show that Amway was a direct selling company.
The properties of the company have been attached by the ED under the Money Laundering Act. The properties that the ED has attached include the company’s factory building in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district. Apart from this, plant and machinery, vehicles, bank accounts and fixed deposits are included. Earlier, the AJC had attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 411.83 crore of the company. Not only this, an amount of Rs 345.94 crore has also been seized from 36 different accounts. The Hyderabad Police had filed a complaint against Amway in 2011. Accordingly, this action has been taken.
Amway had 5.5 lakh direct sellers or members across the country. The investigation revealed that the pyramid fraud was being done by Amway, under which members were added with the promise that they would earn money and become rich through the members joining them. The ED said that the products sold by this company were priced much higher than other popular brands. The agency said that common people were made members and in return they were charged hefty fees and they were encouraged to buy the company’s products with the lure of profits. In this way common people were losing their hard earned money to Amway, while the people at the top of the company were getting rich continuously.