Boman Irani opens up on Rs 425 crore QNet scam

It’s not exactly been a Happy New Year for Boman Irani. The actor and his son Danesh Irani’s name cropped up in a complaint filed by a certain Gurupreet Anand with The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, alleging their involvement in the infamous QNet scam. For the uninitiated, QNet is a multi-level marketing company that duped people of more than Rs 425 crore by selling them items with "miraculous properties". The company posed as marketing firm professing to sell watches, herbal products, holiday packages etc and lured investors with schemes involving investment between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 7 lakh. Boman had in the past, attended several promotional events of Qnet. One picture shows him posing along with former billiards champion Michael Ferreria, who is already in the docks and against whom the EOW has issued a look out notice. Sources say that Boman’s son; Danesh’s bank accounts allegedly show the presence of a substantial amount of money somewhere to the tune of 18 crore. Police are currently investigating Danesh’s role in the scam and trying to gauge whether any of his bank account transactions were related to QNet. Meanwhile, Boman Irani issued an official statement to clear all airs regarding his and his son’s role in the scam. Reproduced below Boman’s his press statement: ‘I was informed yesterday that there was information sent to the members of the media that a certain gentleman has lodged a complaint against my son Danesh Irani and I, for involvement with a company - Qnet. This is a multilevel marketing company that is at the moment is under scrutiny by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW). My involvement with the company is merely based on the fact that I have attended a function of Qnet and had been photographed there. My son had worked as an agent like thousands of others when he had passed out of college, during the period of 2007-2008. After which he left for the USA for his MBA. His earnings and residuals for his hard earned efforts as a multilevel marketing agent are all taxed and above board. Even though the individual has made this complaint, no authority including the EOW has intimated us for any inquiry. Rest assured, me and my family are law abiding citizens of this country.’ Well, let’s wait and see what the EOW unearths in the coming days.