A ₹500-crore cooperative fraud recruited Alok Nath — the actor famous for playing trustworthy patriarchs — as its brand ambassador. The casting was perfect; the business model less so.
The Launi Urban Multi State Credit and Thrift Cooperative Society (LUCC) promised retired government employees, women's self-help groups, and small farmers 2x returns from oil refineries and gold trading ventures abroad. To make the pitch credible, they hired actors Alok Nath and Shreyas Talpade as brand ambassadors — because nothing says "your pension is safe" like a Bollywood uncle smiling on a brochure. Between 2019-2024, the scheme hoovered up ₹500 crore before the primary accused, Sameer Agarwal, absconded overseas with Interpol's Blue Corner Notice as his latest credit. CBI has now filed FIRs against 46 people after the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the case transferred from local police, who had presumably been investigating with the same urgency as the refinery projects — which is to say, none.