attaches assets worth – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth ₹17. 91 crore in connection with a pan-India Ponzi scam run through a fraudulent investment website, officials said on Friday (December 12, 2025). The assets, which were attached on December 10 by the Shillong sub-zonal office of the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, included 13 immovable and seven movable properties, among them several luxury cars that were allegedly acquired using the proceeds of crime.

The money laundering investigation begins with an FIR (First Information Report) filed by the CID (Criminal Investigation Department), Meghalaya Police, based on a complaint by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India), Shillong, following which a charge sheet has been filed under various IPC (Indian Penal Code) provisions against persons involved in the scheme operated under the banner of ‘Pearlvine International’. Read this also Fresh Ponzi scam comes to light in Asansol, West Bengal, embezzlement of ₹350 crore.

According to the ED, Pearlvine International – an unrecognized entity that misrepresented itself as a US-based company – lured investors with lucrative schemes, collected a minimum membership fee of ₹2,250, and ran a Ponzi network across India from 2018 to March 2023. Operators also held seminars across the country for investment at one time. Claiming to have over 80 lakh members in India and abroad in 2022.

Investigators estimate that the entity collected at least ₹1,575 crore, of which ₹395. 35 crore was never returned to investors. The investigation has identified Neeraj Kumar Gupta as the main culprit, who purchased the pearlvine.

com domain in November 2015 and conducted promotional seminars in India and Thailand. The ED said that with the latest action, the total attachment in the case has increased to ₹54. 98 crore, which also includes the previous attachment of ₹37.

07 crore. Further investigation is underway.