Bhupendrasinh Zala is commonly considered the “kingpin” of the Ponzi scheme, having been charged with masterminding a chit-fund scam worth Rs 450 crore as per his biography
According to reports, the Gujarat CID crime department is scheduled to summon four Gujarat Titans players, including India international cricketer Shubman Gill, in connection with a Rs 450 crore Ponzi scheme scam.
Who is Bhupendrasinh Zala, owner of BZ Group involved in Ponzi scheme scam in Gujarat, biography, age, education, company and net worth
Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, and Mohit Sharma are the three cricket players who are probably going to be questioned in addition to Gill who had invested Rs.1.75 crore while the other cricketers had invested relatively smaller amounts.
In an anticipatory bail application filed by businessman Bhupendrasinh Parbatsinh Zala under Section 4821 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, a Single Judge Bench of M.R. Mengdey, J., denied the application today after the alleged mastermind of the Rs.6000 crore Ponzi scheme scam in Gujarat was arrested by the Gujarat CID.
The CID had unearthed transactions of Rs 175 crore in two bank accounts of Zala and besides registering three FIRs, police arrested an agent and seized Rs 16.37 lakh in cash besides three laptops, 11 mobile phones, rubber stamps, documents and PAN cards during raids on premises linked to the main accused.
The police have also seized three luxury cars which includes a Mercedes worth Rs 4 crore, Porsche worth Rs 3 crore and a Rs 2 crore Volvo which Zala is alleged to have bought from investors’ money.
Police have also found 17 others properties including land, plots, shops which he bought between 2023 and 2024 and the worth of the properties is said to be in several hundred crores although Zala’s exact net worth isn’t known.
Zala who was born on 12 June, 1994, a resident of Zalanagar in Himmatnagar taluka of Sabarkantha district, has studied B.Sc and B.Ed and after finishing education, he started “multi-level marketing” by luring investors since 2020.
Ponzi scheme mastermind and BJP member Bhupendrasinh Zala of Gujarat's BZ Financial Services and BZ Group was avoiding arrest from Nov 29th. The BZ group is accused of fraud of about Rs 6000 crore. National TV Media avoided reporting on this for one month. pic.twitter.com/8p1St4MoVf
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) December 28, 2024
According to a media report, the development comes after Bhupendrasinh Zala, the purported mastermind of the Ponzi scam, was questioned. During interrogation, Zala allegedly acknowledged that he had not reimbursed the cricket players’ investments.
Bhupendrasinh Zala, the CEO of a company accused of defrauding hundreds of investors, including several cricket players, in a Ponzi scheme scam, was taken into custody by Gujarat police on Friday. According to a top Gujarat CID Crime Branch official, Zala, who had been evading capture for weeks, was apprehended on Friday from a village in the Mehsana district.
Who is Bhupendrasinh Zala?
Shubman Gill is among the four Gujarat Titans cricketers likely to be summoned by the Gujarat CID crime branch in a 450 crore ponzi scam, according to a report. Besides Gill, the other cricketers likely to be summoned are Sai Sudharshan, Rahul Tewatia and Mohit Sharma. Source:… pic.twitter.com/MkvUNUA0nk
— Sarcasm (@sarcastic_us) January 2, 2025
Zala is the Founder of BZ GROUP CEO & BZ Global Education Campus Owner based in Himatnagar, Sabarkantha, Gujarat.
Duping investors by promising them high returns, age 30 Bhupendrasinh Zala who is also a BJP worker and the main accused in the BZ financial scam, traded in crores with money from small investors in just four years. During this time, he became a businessman with influence, and possessor of multiple assets and he even made teachers of Sabarkantha agents for his Ponzi scheme, setting up an entire network.
Alleged ponzi scheme operator Bhupendrasinh Zala collected Rs 450 crore from 11,000 investors through 17 offices he set up across Gujarat between 2020 and 2024 but his exact net worth isn’t known.
He also ventured into education by opening BZ Sanskar School and the Global Education Campus and in addition, he opened a showroom for BZ Electronics, where investors and agents were rewarded with gifts such as smart TVs and refrigerators.
Zala promised ₹3,000 per month for an investment of ₹1 lakh while in a fixed deposit scheme, a return of ₹2,50,000 per year was promised on the principal amount of ₹1,00,000 and opened offices at various locations and activated agents in Talod, Ransan, Himmatnagar, Vijapur, Modasa, Malpur in Aravalli, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara districts to collect money from investors.
BZ Financial Services is the company owned by Bhupendrasinh Zala. It is charged with running a fraudulent scheme without obtaining regulatory permissions and guaranteeing his depositors yearly returns of 30–35%. Additionally, he was accused of luring his investors with gifts including television sets, cell phones, and a trip to Goa. The official asserted that the total scam amount may reach ₹6,000 crore.
After receiving a complaint, police began looking into the company and raided seven of Zala’s eleven offices throughout the state approximately three weeks ago. As the investigation’s findings became public, the remaining centres closed.
This month, a lookout circular notice was issued against Zala, a resident of the Himmatnagar taluka in the Sabarkantha district, who identified himself as the CEO of the BZ Group.
VIDEO | CID arrests Bhupendrasinh Zala – the owner of BZ Group, who was wanted for orchestrating Gujarat's largest Rs 6,000 crore Ponzi scheme. He was apprehended from a farmhouse in Davada village, Visnagar, Mehsana district, and has now been brought to Gandhinagar.
(Full video… pic.twitter.com/TMl3YU1Qbm
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 27, 2024
After the prosecution claimed that Zala had received ₹360 crore in various accounts prior to the police crackdown and had managed to withdraw this money by the time his accounts were stopped, leaving only ₹1 crore, the Gujarat high court denied Zala’s request for anticipatory relief last week.