India’s poor conned out of their savings
Millions of low-income investors in Bengal state lose at least $2bn after collapse of unregulated Ponzi schemes.
Published On 28 May 2013
The government of India is scrambling to draw up new legislation on investment schemes that target the poor.
Millions of depositors, most from the lowest-income brackets, are now destitute and in debt, following the collapse of several funds, which were unregulated.
The Securities and Exchange board of India says people have handed over $2bn to these so-called collective investment schemes.
With no solution in sight, the state government and regulators are now passing the buck, blaming each other for allowing the money-circulating schemes to flourish.
Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan reports from Kolkata.
Source: Al Jazeera