In a leafy, upmarket neighbourhood in Chennai's Adyar, R Shankar lives with his wife in a spacious apartment. Shankar, touching 70, was a chemical engineer of repute and has helped set up industrial units across the globe. At a time, which he should have spent enjoying the fruit of four decades of hard work, he is more busy now than in his active working years.
He spends his time organising litigation-related documents, liaising with investigators and lawyers, trying to recover his life's savings that lies entangled in several court cases and investigations around financial firm Viswapriya India.
Some miles away in metro rail work-battered Anna Nagar, N Viswanathan, son of a top lawyer in Madurai of the '50s and '60s, lives in a park-facing house. Viswanathan, who writes a column on traditional music in The New Indian Express and with some devotional publications and CDs to his credit, also has an impressive service record. All that apart, his entire provident fund amount, several lakh rupees, is stuck in Viswapriya.
Both Viswanathan and Shankar are highly qualified people. They are well travelled, interacted with top bureaucrats and corporate honchos, and have dealt with and solved complex issues in their professional lives.
Yet, they both walked into what has now become a financial minefield. Their spouses can't digest the fact that their husbands fell for it. "My husband has built airports in foreign countries. But, he came here to give it all to this guy," laments
Mrs Viswanathan. Such was the Titanic confidence Viswa-priya had instilled in its investors through a star-studded board, timely interest payments and persuasive staff which struck an emotional chord with clients, calling them maama (uncle) and maami (aunty), that even the collapse of sister concern Subhiksha, which now seems a screaming red flag, did not bother these smart people.
The Shankars, who spent their formative years in Mumbai and are among the better informed, get calls from other anxious investors. Many of them are too old to move around or elderly widows who are not familiar with legal processes. "They rely on us for information. We try to offer them hope. It has become a fulltime job for him," said Mrs Shankar.
Shankar said he feels the whole system is not friendly or even fair to people who have invested money. The investigative agencies, for whom this is only one of multiple cases, often do not have time and resources to go after the trail of money. A few days ago, the high court judge who'd earlier refused anticipatory bail for Viswapriya founder R Subramanian, enlarged him on bail as the prosecution was unable to convince the court of the need to detain him further.
"Where has all the money gone? They had arrested several people. They are all now out on bail. But, we are not any wiser at the end of it all," says Viswanathan.
Shankar said says the investigators often are "looking for leads and clues from us". A house was raided in Cuddalore and some documents were recovered but these were largely papers from investors themselves. "Not much about the assets, which can be used to pay off investors," said Viswanathan.
Subramanian has present to the court a list of land parcels and office spaces in and around Chennai. The court has now asked him to give details of titles and other specifications, as fears of various encumbrances were expressed before it.
"The investor profile of Viswapriya looks very carefully chosen. Many are from the Brahmin community and ladies. These are not people who will take to the streets. They are also not savvy enough to take to social media and create noise like some others have done. Seven-eight people have already died. If the proceedings continue like this for a few more years, others will follow. This way, they wont need to pay off too many," Viswanathan said with a wry laugh.
All good investment stories often sound the same. The bad ones are bad in their own way.
