The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached assets worth Rs 757.77 crore of FMCG Amway India in a money laundering case. According to the investigating agency, the firm is accused of running a multi-level marketing scam.
The ED (Enforcement Directorate) statement said that the attached properties include Amway land and factory building, plant and machinery, vehicles, bank accounts and fixed deposits in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district.
Earlier, the central probe agency had provisionally attached immovable and movable assets worth Rs 411.83 crore and bank balance of Rs 345.94 crore from 36 different accounts of Amway.
The ED alleged in its investigation that Amway Direct Selling is committing pyramid fraud under the guise of multi-level marketing network. It has been observed that most of the products offered by the company are priced exorbitantly as compared to alternative popular products from reputed manufacturers available in the open market.
“Without knowing the actual facts the general public is motivated to join as members of the company and buy the products at exorbitant prices and thus is losing their hard earned money. New members are not buying the products to use them Rather, it has been demonstrated by upline members to become rich by becoming members. The fact is that the commission received by upline members contributes a great deal to the increase in the prices of the products,” the investigative agency’s statement said.
The entire focus of the company is on promoting that how one can earn by becoming a member. No attention is paid to the products. The products are used to disguise this MLM pyramid fraud as a direct selling company,” the ED said.
The ED has said that the prices of most of the products of Amway are very high as compared to the products of other companies available in the market. It has also claimed that Amway collected Rs 27,562 crore during 2002-03 to 2021-22. Of this, Rs 7,588 crore was given as commission to agents and distributors in India and the US.
The ED has said that gullible people who do not know the correct facts are tempted to become members of the company. Then, they convince people to buy high-priced products from their friends-relatives. In this way people’s hard earned money is spent on buying expensive products. The emphasis of the member is not on buying products for his own use, but his emphasis is on getting rich quickly. Actually, the company explains to the members very well that if they sell these products to others, they will become very rich soon.
The ED has said that since the commission is divided on several layers, due to which the price of the products becomes very high. The ED has said that Amway tries to sell more and more of its products by making people dream of becoming rich soon. The company promotes itself as a direct selling brand.