West Bengal, the Rose Valley chit fund scam: Forget about the attack and arrest before lets looks into the scam itself. The money involved in the Rose valley chit fund scam is whooping Rs 15,000 crore as per reports and if this is correct it would be the biggest Ponzi scam in India and the scam would even make feel the Saradha scam feel shy, as it is many times bigger than it.

What is Ponzi scheme:  In short any Ponzi scheme is a type of pyramid scheme. In this Ponzi scheme money from new investors is used to provide a return to previous/old investors. This type schemes mostly collapses when money owed to previous investors is greater than the money that can be raised from new investors. Ponzi schemes always collapse eventually.

People near the states like West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand have mostly fallen to such scams, since they think this is a easy way to increase their return. One of my friends recently tried to make me know the importance of such investment; he tried a lot so that I can understand, but failed to do so.

Why this Rose Valley Ponzi scheme is in news

The Rose Valley chit fund scam, involving funds of over Rs 15,000 crore, is easily the biggest in the westbengal, it has even dwarfed the Rs 2,500-crore Saradha scam. The owner of Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu has been in jail since March 23, 2015.

On Tuesday, The CBI arrested Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay for his alleged involvement in the chit fund scam by Rose Valley Group.

After which the BJP office was vandalized and workers were beaten. Street fights erupted between BJP workers and TMC workers. Mamata claims the CBI is against her driven by Modi government vendetta.

"CBI is investigating the Rose valley under the directives of the Supreme Court(SC) and it is a legal process. Various Chit fund companies have looted people in West Bengal and TMC leaders have a hand in such companies,"   said Siddharth Nath Singh from BJP rubbishing TMC Conspiracy theory.

Some arrest made after the Rose Valley and Saradha scam are Bandopadhyay, Madan Mitra, Mukul Roy, Kunal Ghosh, Tapas Pal  and Srinjoy Bose. Mithun Chakraborty was also recently questioned by the ED in the Saradha scam.

About People who lost their living hood and life time savings

More than 18 lakh families were affected by the Ponzi scam, they lost their lifetime savings in the ponzi scam which promised good returns.

Making of the mountain, the Rose Valley Ponzi scam

1. Rose Valley Scheme, as per the Enforce Dictoreate(ED), it is estimated the amount reportedly collected in this scheme is more than Rs. 15,000 crore from depositors all over India, especially West Bengal, Assam and Bihar
2. In March 2015, the Chairman of the group Gautam Kundu was arrested by the ED in March 2015. After interrogation at his salt lake office in Kolkata. Ever since he is in jail.
3. 
   The all India small depositors association puts the amount at close to Rs 40,000 crore - 16 times the size of the Saradha scam
4. Huge amounts were allegedly took off and transferred to other accounts
5. ED is certain a major portion of the money was used to bribe major politicians for smooth running of the ponzi chain
6. Rose Valley hotels & entertainment reportedly owns nearly 23 properties across India
7. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had prohibited the sale of the real estate by Rose Valley in January 2011.
8. In addition, all the 2,600 bank accounts of the company have been frozen, which all together hold cash balances of Rs 800-1,000 crore.
9. There are more than 20 companies under the Rose Valley banner on paper, this includes companies like Rose Valley Microfinance, Rose Valley Airlines, Rose Valley Fashion, Rose Valley Consultancy, Rose Valley Infotech and Rose Valley Housing , Rose Valley Beverages, Finance, as per news report
10. Kajal Kundu, the elder brother of Gautam Kundu was instrumental in creating the Rose Valley empire in the span of 18 years
11. Kajal started with Rose Valley Hotels & Entertainment and alongside, he also set up Rose Valley Real Estate & Construction
12. Kajal Kundu also started Rose Valley Chain Marketing; the company Rose Valley later in 2002 became a corporate agent of the LIC
13. After Kajal Kundu sudden death in in an accident in 2003 and the baton of the company passed over to Gautam Kundu.
14. Lured by the promise of high returns, unsuspecting people kept pouring in money, often their lives' savings, into such schemes
15. Rose Valley was having a smooth run until 2012, when Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) raised objections on the way company was being operated

Rose Valley scam is much bigger than the Saradha chit fund scam and more than 18 lakh families were affected