The Enforcement Directorate on Monday attached assets worth Rs 757.77 crore belonging to Amway India Enterprises Private Limited on allegations of the firm running a multi-level marketing scam.
US-based Amway Enterprises is a company that deals in health, beauty, and home care products. Its marketing strategy involves the pyramid structure under which its executives receive incentives for employing agents under them to sell the products.
The properties that were attached on Monday include land and factory buildings of Amway India in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district, and plant, machineries, vehicles, bank accounts and fixed deposits, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
A property attached by the central agency cannot be transferred, converted or moved.
Of the assets attached worth Rs 757.77 crore, immovable and movable properties amount to Rs 411.83 crore, and the remaining Rs 345.94 crore is in bank balance in 36 accounts belonging to the company.
The Enforcement Directorate said that Amway was running a “pyramid fraud” in the guise of selling multi-level marketing network.
“It is observed that the prices of most of the products offered by the company are exorbitant as compared to the alternative popular products of reputed manufacturers available in the open market,” it said. “Without knowing the real facts, the common gullible public is induced to join as members of the company and purchase products at exorbitant prices and are thus losing their hard-earned money.”
The new members, the Enforcement Directorate said, did not buy the products to use them, but “to become rich by becoming members as showcased by the upline members”.
“Reality is that the commissions received by the upline members contribute enormously in hike of prices of the products,” it added.
The investigating agency further said that the company had collected an amount of Rs 27,562 crore from its business operations between financial years 2002-’03 and 2021-’22. But, it paid only Rs 7,588 crore as commission to its distributors and members in India and in the United States during the period.
An unidentified Amway India spokesperson told PTI that the company was cooperating with the authorities for a “fair, legal, and logical conclusion of the outstanding issues”. The spokesperson said that the Enforcement Directorate’s action was in connection to an investigation dating back to 2011.
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