Speak Asia, a multi-level marketing company, owes more than Rs. 2000 crore to about 1 lakhs of its investors. Registered in Singapore, Speak Asia only had operations in India. The company came under the scanner of investigating authorities after it became popular for promising easy money by merely filling out online surveys. In a crackdown in June 2011, it was found that the company was operating illegally in India. Speak Asia has illegally raised funds from people either through subscription money or the income it has to pay in exchange for filling out surveys.
In February 2010, Speak Asia began its operations in India, and within 15 months, raised a massive amount of Rs. 2276 crore from more than 20 lakh individuals who enrolled in the company for online surveys. After a case was filed by the Mumbai Police in 2011, ED initiated an inquiry against Speak Asia, its directors, promoters, and others as per the money laundering act. After conducting an investigation, ED confiscated Speak Asia’s properties worth Rs. 89.56 crores.
In May 2021, a few cases were registered, where the accused in Speak Asia was again found for allegedly defrauding investors of thousands of crores by establishing a new entity. Many individuals who have invested their money in Speak Asia have approached the Supreme Court for recovering their money from the company. However, investigations are still going on by various government agencies. Investors still have no idea whether they will get their money back from Speak Asia or not.