Gujarat govt under fire over ₹400 crore scam with minimal recoveries

Two major scams rocked Gujarat—BZ Group’s ₹6,000 crore Ponzi scheme in 2024 and Blockora’s ₹300 crore crypto fraud in 2025—duping over 22,000 investors, with most funds still untraced and public outrage mounting

A wave of outrage swept through the Gujarat Assembly after Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani revealed that investors in the state lost over ₹402 crore in financial scams over the past two years—with only ₹7.53 crore recovered so far.

Mevani cited official data showing 81 complaints filed under the Gujarat Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, 2003, yet government action has resulted in asset seizures from just two companies. The recovered funds amount to a mere 1.87% of the total investor losses—raising serious questions about the efficacy of the state’s financial fraud enforcement.

This poor performance follows two headline-grabbing scams. In 2024, the BZ Group’s Bhupendrasinh Zala defrauded more than 14,000 people in a ₹6,000 crore Ponzi scheme, offering false promises of high returns. Investigations uncovered ₹175 crore in linked transactions, but the bulk of the money is yet to be traced.

Crypto scam sparks public outrage

Earlier this year, Blockora, a crypto investment platform, collapsed after allegedly swindling ₹300 crore from 8,000 investors through a fake digital currency called TABC. Victims were promised daily payouts until the founders disappeared.

Despite these massive financial crimes, legal progress and asset recovery remain sluggish. Lawmakers and civil society are now pressing the state government for urgent reforms to bolster investor protection and speed up compensation efforts.

Mevani accused the government of “abandoning victims to bureaucracy,” and warned that continued inaction could lead to a collapse of public trust in regulatory systems.

Unless enforcement mechanisms are strengthened and recovery processes streamlined, experts say Gujarat could face a deeper crisis—not just of finance, but of public confidence.