SFIO lens on 81 cos for fraud in 10 months of FY18

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has initiated probes into 81 firms in the first ten months of 2017-18 for allegedly indulging in fraud activities, Union Minister P P Chaudhary said today.
The count of such companies being referred to the white collar crime probe agency stood at 111 in 2016-17 and 184 in 2015-16, the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs said in written reply to Lok Sabha.
The investigation has been initiated by the SFIO, which comes under the corporate affairs ministry, for alleged involvement in fraud, he added.
Separately, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said that CBI has registered and investigated 133 cases in the current fiscal (till January) against various ponzi companies for fraud and scams.

The move comes after the government received various complaints regarding cheating of small investors, particularly by the companies involved in ponzi, chit fund and multi-level marketing activities in different states of the country.