From an achiever to scamster: Story of Amberjit Endow, son of "Rotarian-Cachar District Governor", Arijit Endow

Late last year, a Facebook post from an account that goes by the name of Maherjit Shah went viral. The account itself looked dubious and the post contained ferocious claims against one of Silchar’s most prestigious families. A couple of months later, The Age and Sydney Morning Headlines break the news of a former Partner at the world’s largest consulting firm, Deloitte, Amberjit Endow being Australia’s one of the biggest conmen.

According to the investigative journalists’ report, Endow has duped around $60 million which translates to about Rs 500 crore in Indian value. Being a former partner at Deloitte, he already had a great network and investors with deep pockets trusted him. He formed a fund called Endow Family Capital and got it registered in Australia.

Amberjit Endow’s pitch to investors was that he has a construction company back in India and that the company has bagged contracts to construct roads in rural parts of the country under the Government of India’s Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. He promised investors quick and high returns of about 40% within a brief period like six months.

Investors that The Age spoke with said that they invested in the Cap because they were convinced by Endow’s pitch and they got lured by the attractive offer. His Deloitte background also lured investors to trust him is what a few of them shared with the publication.

Let’s read some of the excerpts from Meherjit shah’s post on FB, “I want to share a very disturbing story with you all about a man from Silchar named Amberjit Endow, his nickname is Ronnie. Amberjit (Ronnie) ran a Ponzi Scheme in Australia and successfully stole $ 60 million from innocent mums and dads. I am one of the victims…… Their (His) father is Arijit Endow, who is a member of the Silchar Rotary Club and lives in Silchar with his wife Minaxmi.”

The post that has now been deleted, adds, “Amberjit Endow and his wife Minhee developed a scam persuading people to invest in an Indian Government programme called Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana of India (PMGSY). They are still operating this scam and I want to warn people about them. If they approach you and tell you that their family builds roads in Assam, that they employ 50,000 people, and they have a construction business and own the biggest tea plantations in Assam and want you to invest in the family business – DON’T BELIEVE THEM. It’s a lie to steal your money.”

The social media account claimed that he was hiding with his Korean wife in Silchar. Our correspondent went to the residence of Arijit Endow at Central Road, Silchar and found out it has been rented to tenants. The tenants said that the owners (Endows) had last visited in December and that they pay rent through the caretaker.

District Police sources informed that they have very little to no official information about a scam of such magnitude being perpetrated by one of the residents related to the jurisdiction. Victoria Police is reportedly investigating the case and searching for Amberjit Endow. How this investigation unfolds is something that remains to be seen.