The Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police has exposed a nationwide syndicate of conmen that lured people by making false claims of high returns of investments through the sale of iridium and cheated them to the tune of a few hundreds of crores of rupees.
Searches were conducted across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on Friday (September 12, 2025), leading to the arrest of at least 17 suspects. The agency had already arrested 13 accused persons who gave specific leads to the modus operandi and network of criminals. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the gang was involved in defrauding the public by misusing the name of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The syndicate, spread into several teams across Tamil Nadu, made their target clients believe that investment on iridium, the sales and transactions of which would happen abroad, would yield huge returns. Claiming that the entire business had the approval of the RBI, the accused even opened email accounts for the victims, which looked like those linked to the central bank.
Fake certification
After convincing the people that an investment of ₹5 lakh would fetch a return of ₹5 crore within a stipulated time, the accused took them in groups to open bank accounts exclusively for the purpose. They would even show a photo of the iridium with a fake certification from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that would be sold in the international market. The large number of people who invested money in the bank accounts got email acknowledgement from fake RBI accounts confirming their contribution. Once the money was invested, it vanished and never came back.
