Ripped-off Pearls investors take aim at Brett Lee

A group representing Indian investors scammed in the Pearls Ponzi scheme has demanded action against cricketer Brett Lee.

Australian cricketer Brett Lee is under scrutiny over his connection to the Pearls investment scheme.

A group representing tens of thousands of poor Indian investors ripped off in the Pearls Ponzi scam has demanded action against Australian cricketer Brett Lee, who was a “brand ambassador” for the company.

Former chief justice of India R.M. Lodha is chairing a committee trying to recover $10 billon ­defrauded from 50 million mainly small-time investors.

Delegates from the All India PACL (Pearls) Investors Association, which represents more than 50,000 investors, met a member of the Lodha committee in Mumbai this week.

It presented a list of demands on behalf of investors, including that: “We demand action against (cricketers) Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Brett Lee who made huge benefits from Pearls.”

Lee was paid almost $300,000 to spruik the company. There is no suggestion that he knew of Pearls’ fraudulent dealings when he signed on for what his former manager Neil Maxwell said “was just a few days’ work”.

“The Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating celebrities who were involved with the schemes and, yes, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh are under investigation with respect to the plots at Mohali received by them from the company,” a lawyer ­involved in the case told The Australian.

“Brett Lee had acted as brand ambassador of the group and his role and payments made to him are being looked into, but at this stage it is not clear whether he would be questioned.”

Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three other directors of the company were arrested last month and are in custody, awaiting trial on charges of fraud.

The Lodha committee will meet today in Delhi, where it is ­expected to set the directions for corporate regulators and police to recover the money.

It could decide to issue directives to freeze Pearls’ assets abroad, which include tens of millions of dollars of real estate in Australia, including the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast. It could also issue directives to recover money from Bollywood actors and cricketers, such as Lee, who were paid large sums of money to lure investors.

Indian authorities believe the payments to Lee and others, and the money used to buy real estate in Australia, where at least $130m was sent, are the proceeds of crime.

Mr Lodha, who is seen as being tough and thorough, recently headed a committee into corruption at the powerful Board of Cricket Control in India, which recommended sweeping anti-­corruption measures.

Lee, who has declined to comment, is possibly the best-known international cricketer in India and has built his post-cricket ­career in the Indian market, ­appearing in Bollywood films and advertisements.

Hirish Bijooor, an Indian brand consultant, said he had been following Lee’s involvement and said it appeared he was being badly ­advised and that at the very least he needed to make a public ­apology to the millions of victims who were defrauded by a company he had endorsed.

“Reputation is everything as far as a cricketer is concerned,” Mr Bijoor said.

“You know with politicians reputations are not as ­important. Cricket is a religion in this country and typically people tend to worship cricketers as gods. When a crisis of this kind comes along it is best not to ignore it.’’