Shillong, Dec 11: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) Shillong Sub-Zonal Office has provisionally attached assets worth ₹17.91 crore in connection with a large-scale investment fraud run through the website pearlvine.com, which operated under the banner “Pearlvine International.”

The attached properties include 13 immovable assets and seven movable assets, among them luxury vehicles allegedly purchased through proceeds of the scam.

According to ED, the action follows an FIR filed by the CID, Meghalaya Police, based on an RBI complaint. The investigation focuses on a Ponzi-style scheme that operated across India between 2018 and March 2023, collecting money from lakhs of unsuspecting investors.

Pearlvine International, an unregistered entity falsely projecting itself as US-based, lured investors with “high-return” schemes and charged a minimum of ₹2,250 in membership fees. By 2022, it claimed to have 80 lakh members in India and abroad.

ED investigations revealed that the company collected at least ₹1,575 crore, of which ₹395.35 crore remains unpaid to investors. The agency has identified Neeraj Kumar Gupta as the mastermind behind the scam, noting that he purchased the pearlvine.com domain in 2015 and conducted seminars across India and Thailand to promote the fraudulent scheme.

With the latest attachment, the total assets attached by ED in this case now stand at ₹54.98 crore, including the earlier attachment worth ₹37.07 crore.

The ED said further investigation is underway.

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