On July 6, Pratik Radhakrishnan was driving around Bengaluru in a rented luxury car, when he was stopped by the police. With that, the 35-year-old’s dream run came to a halt.From chartered helicopters for domestic travel and high-end motorcycles to three wristwatches worth at least Rs 25 lakh each and a citizenship of Saint Kitts under an assumed name of Rohan Menon — Radhakrishnan, who claims to have graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, was arrested for allegedly running a Rs 65-crore Ponzi scheme.The investigation has revealed that 30 people from Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kerala and Chennai had invested in his fake firm in less than a year.The Mumbai Police were alerted to his scheme in June by a 62-year-old man, who had invested Rs 5.24 crore in Radhakrishnan’s company, TARS Project Management. Since 2024, after he allegedly acquired the Saint Kitts citizenship using forged papers, Radhakrishnan had been attracting investments under his assumed name of Rohan Menon.According to the Mumbai Police, the FIR against Radhakrishnan, who grew up in Chennai, was filed by the 62-year-old resident of Mumbai’s Santacruz at the West Cyber police station on July 4 this year.In November 2024, convinced by a relative that he would receive monthly returns of nearly 10%, the Santacruz resident had invested Rs 10 lakh in Radhakrishnan’s “Dubai-based firm”. A month later, he received a return of Rs 90,000. Enthused, he invested Rs 5.14 crore between December 2024 and February 2025. In February, he received a return of Rs 5 lakh.The police said the investor requested a tour of Radhakrishnan’s “Dubai office” but was brushed off. Undeterred, the investor landed in Dubai in March, only to be informed by Radhakrishnan that a tour was impossible since he was in the United States.Story continues below this adAccording to his complaint, the investor soon discovered that Radhakrishnan’s firm did not exist. When he demanded a refund, Radhakrishnan allegedly sent him fake cheques and demand drafts, before ceasing all communication.Before his July 6 arrest, a team of three officials from West Cyber police station, headed by assistant police inspector Vijay Ghorpade, had landed at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru in search of Radhakrishnan. Informed that he had gone out and was scheduled to check-out that evening, the team used his mobile phone to track his location.The five-star hotel and the rented luxury car were just the tip of the iceberg, they added. Accused of fraud twice in the past, Radhakrishnan spent a few months in jail in connection with one complaint.The first cheating case against him was lodged in Chennai in 2022 by a local businessman, who claimed that Radhakrishnan had allegedly duped him of Rs 2.82 crore in exchange for a garments franchise. The police said Radhakrishnan had allegedly forged the signatures and stamps in his agreement with the complainant. In March 2023, Radhakrishnan was arrested as soon as he landed at the Chennai airport from Dubai. He approached the Madras High Court seeking “A class facility” in prison since “he was used to a superior mode of living”. Dismissing his plea on September 7, 2023, the court directed him to provide proof to substantiate his claim.Story continues below this adWithin days after his arrest, another case of cheating was registered against him at Mumbai’s L T Marg police station after the victim learnt about Radhakrishnan’s arrest. He accused Radhakrishnan of pretending to work for a Dubai-based multinational to lure him to buy company shares worth Rs 4.17 crore.Released on bail in November 2023 in Chennai, in 2024, Radhakrishnan allegedly used forged papers with the name Rohan Menon to apply for the new citizenship. He started approaching individuals using his assumed name, promising high returns that “his Dubai-based firm generated via trading”.The police said he used his Saint Kitts passport to visit the US and a few European countries. To keep the police off his back, he started travelling to Dubai via Nepal.According to the police, he would give his investors account numbers belonging to his friends or individuals, who received a 1% commission. Investigation has revealed that these funds were then transferred to UAE accounts and that some of this money was also converted into cryptocurrency.Story continues below this adRadhakrishnan reportedly told the police that he had completed his BTech from IIT-Madras in 2011. “He said he had joined an IT multinational in Bengaluru after that. Over a year later, he said he went to the US for an MBA. Then, he worked in New York for two years. In 2015, he moved to Dubai to work for a multinational investment firm. In 2018, he started working for a trading firm in Tamil Nadu. A few months later, he shifted to work in a Mumbai bank till 2020,” the police said.In 2021, Radhakrishnan, whose father worked with the Indian Postal Services before his retirement, floated his own investment firm that listed a south Mumbai office address.Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Purshottam Karad of West Cyber police station said another FIR was lodged against Radhakrishnan on July 19 by a Worli-based man who claimed to have been duped of Rs 15 crore.“Radhakrishnan usually targeted vulnerable investors, especially senior citizens. His modus operandi involved re-routing the funds to Mumbai through hawala and using that money to fund his lavish lifestyle.”