Michael Ferreira gets bail after SC stays QNet multilevel marketing cases

MUMBAI: In a huge relief to four-time world billiards champion Michael Ferreira, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered his release on bail in the alleged Rs 1,000-crore QNet multilevel marketing case.
A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Rohinton Nariman directed that Ferreira (80), a Padma Bhushan awardee and Malcolm Desai (45), in jail for about six months, be released on a bail bond of Rs 25,000 each.
Ferreira owns 80% shares and Desai the remaining 20% in Vihaan Direct Selling (India), a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based direct selling company QNet. They have been chargesheeted for running a Ponzi scheme, duping thousands of buyers.
But moving court for protection of their fundamental rights to equality, trade and liberty, Ferreira and Desai pointed out in the SC that their business module was in compliance with guidelines on direct selling issued last September by the consumer affairs ministry.
Their petition said, “One of the biggest challenges for the Indian direct selling industry is a lack of an express regulatory framework, as a result of which, often direct selling companies are compared to pyramid schemes under the Prize, Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.“ They have sought directions to the Union and the states to start implementing the 2016 guidelines which would help distinguish between genuine and malicious direct selling schemes and protect legitimate concerns of consumers and companies.
Their counsel, Dushyant Dave, said criminal proceedings across the country should be stayed till the SC decides the matter. The SC agreed and stayed all 19 FIRs, which means that no investigation, trial or any other legal proceedings can now take place till further orders from the apex court. The bench also appeared to agree with Ferreira's petition that theirs was “not a Ponzi scheme“.
The FIRs were filed starting August 2013 in Mumbai and other cities, including Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. The order comes after the Bombay high court didn't grant relief to Ferreira in January in his plea to club three cases in Maharashtra before one investigating agency.
Ferreira had surrendered and was arrested by the Thane economic offences wing after the SC rejected his anticipatory bail plea last year. His arrest was in a case registered under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act on a complaint filed by Gurpreet Anand, who alleged that Vihaan was illegally running a Ponzi scheme.