The situation surrounding QNET in India and in Mumbai particularly appears to be some form of orchestrated sustained attack on the company to undermine our reputation and prevent us from competing fairly and openly in India. The manner in which an unmerited claim of fraud over a non-existent commercial transaction amounting to Rs.32,000 was escalated to the Economic Offences Wing is highly irregular. On the basis of this complaint, which cannot be substantiated on the face of the FIR itself, in a rather puzzling move, authorities arrested a number of QNET IRs and company officials of our franchisee Vihaan Direct Selling in India, and froze assets.
After a 3 year long investigation arising from this, the case went up all the way to the Supreme Court of India, which in March 2017 has stayed all further FIRs and investigations into the company. You may read the news report about it here (link to: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/michael-ferreira-gets-bail-after-sc-stays-QNET-multilevel-marketing-cases/articleshow/57864143.cms)
On a similar matter, the Karnataka High Court has also passed an order quashing the FIR against the company and its executives. In his order throwing out the FIR, Justice Anand Byrareddy clearly states that MLM does not constitute offences under the PCMC Act, or the charge of cheating under IPC. In fact, the order goes on to refer to the advisory from the central government on the guidelines for the direct selling industry that specifies that all activities of such business must be guided by the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
QNET’s business model is sound and we stand by it. We have been around for 20 years. No fraud company can last that long. Unfortunately, a lack of proper legislation for direct selling in India has led to many companies including us being investigated under various Acts, such as Prize Chits and Money Circulation (Banning) Act that have nothing to do with what direct selling companies do.
Sebi and other similar regulators typically investigate investment related companies and schemes. QNET is neither. We are a direct selling business and sell products and services.