New Delhi, Feb 4 : The Enforcement Directorate's Jalandhar Zonal Office has provisionally attached movable properties in the form of four bank accounts of Crown Credit Cooperative Society Limited, amounting to approximately Rs 4.07 crore, in connection with a large-scale Ponzi scheme that duped thousands of depositors across Punjab, a statement of ED said.

The attachment order was issued on February 4, 2026, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The probe was initiated based on multiple FIRs registered by Punjab Police against the cooperative society, its President-cum-Managing Director Jagjeet Singh, Vice President Gurmeet Kaur, and their associates, the statement said further.

These cases allege criminal breach of trust, cheating, and criminal conspiracy for inducing members of the general public to deposit hard-earned money with false promises of high returns and quick doubling of investments, it said.

Investigations revealed that Jagjeet Singh, Gurmeet Kaur, and their agents misled depositors through dishonest representations and assurances of lucrative profits.

Funds collected from investors were not used for legitimate business purposes but were diverted for personal use by the accused and to pay returns to earlier investors, a classic hallmark of Ponzi operations, it further said. This created an illusion of profitability, encouraging more people to invest and thereby expanding the scale of the fraud.

Deposits gathered from victims across Punjab were consolidated into four specific bank accounts maintained in the name of Crown Credit Cooperative Society Limited. These accounts have now been provisionally attached to prevent further dissipation of the proceeds of crime and to safeguard whatever remains for potential restitution to affected depositors.

The ED's ongoing inquiry continues to map the full flow of funds, identify additional beneficiaries, and trace any other assets acquired through the illicit proceeds.

Such cooperative society scams have proliferated in Punjab in recent years, exploiting trust in community-based financial institutions and luring middle-class and lower-income families with promises of unrealistic returns, often leading to significant financial distress when the schemes collapse.

/IANS