A decade ago, in 2016 the Bombay High Court while rejecting anticipatory bail applications of five accused in the multi-crore QNet scam had observed that “the deceit and fraud camouflaged under the name of e-marketing and business …It is a chain where a person is fooled and then he is trained to fool others to earn money.”

With the growth in online trading, the risk of fraud too has increased. With an increasingly larger number of online transactions taking place everyday across the world, more and more entry points are exposed to bad actors to defraud businesses.

Vihaan has taken advantage of this multilayer transaction points to defraud its customers. But the question is: How is the company continuing its operation and spreading its wings even as its misdeeds are becoming public on regular intervals?

The answer lies in the shrewd and convincing marketing skill of its employees. There are many, but some are exceptional like AVP Brijesh Yadav and his wife Yashu Tyaqi, both of whom achieved Blue Diamond Star, one of the highest levels of QNet rank. Interestingly, Brijesh Yadav’s modus operandi is simple and largely through digital platforms where he would first explain his own success in QNet and inspire people to join QNet with promises of a dream future. Unfortunately, people attracted by his oratory skills often join the QNet and get defrauded.

To note, both Brijesh Yadav and his wife Yashu Tyaqi are qualified doctors but chose to join QNet for easy money.

Arpit Malik, a prominent independent representative and leader ("Associate V Partner") for QNET and its network marketing wing, seems to be one of the strongest leaders in making.  His business maxim that advises new entrants to not get disappointed by early losses but wait for the future perfectly matches the QNet’s ideology.  

The QNet and Vihaan business model is a simple pyramid scheme in which the early entrants earn money and as the number of independent representatives (IR) increases, finding more IRs to join becomes difficult or impossible. IRs that join late do not earn enough to cover their first outlay and the model collapses. It works as a binary scheme. Down the line, the number of persons to be joined becomes difficult or impossible. The scheme collapses at a point of time.

Brijesh Yadav, his wife Yashu Tyaqi or Arpit Malik will highlight the success of the beginners to attract business, and they have been succeeded by huge unemployed youths. The increasing number of online fraud, however, has become a big threat in India’s digital future.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, India lost a staggering Rs 22,495 crore to online fraud in 2025. And if the loss last year was marginally lower than Rs 22,845 crore of 2024, the number of cases has jumped from 22.68 lakh in 2024 to 28.68 lakh in 2025. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) register millions of fraud case

And Vihaan, the Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd, the Indian master franchise of Hong Kong-based multi-level marketing (MLM) firm QNet, however, has been systematically facing scrutiny from multiple central and state regulatory agencies over allegations of tax evasion, money laundering and operating illegal Ponzi schemes. Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) records highlight scrutiny over cross-border payments made by the company to non-resident entities located in Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2019 the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the company, alleging that the MLM scheme drained out over Rs. 20,000 crore out of India. The agency had previously frozen company bank accounts worth Rs 137 crore and attached properties.

Multiple state police departments; most notably in Telangana and Maharashtra, have registered FIRs and arrested individuals associated with the company for allegedly defrauding thousands of investors to legal records up to 38 cases depending on the jurisdiction

The Hyderabad City Police orchestrated a massive crackdown on Vihaan last March, arresting 32 individuals stemming from four new cases across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. The individuals, many of whom were IT professionals, were charged with running illegal money circulation schemes banned under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

The Register of Companies had filed a formal petition before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in August 2019, seeking the compulsory winding up of the firm based on its fraudulent operational framework.

But Vihaan is expanding its business both vertically and horizontally and giving references to a March 2017 Supreme Court of India stay order that halted several regional FIRs and investigations, maintaining that its independent representatives (IRs) — rather than corporate policy — are to blame for any misrepresentations or compliance failures. That is, Vihaan’s employees will be arrested for the company’s misdeeds but the company and its big bosses will be able to avoid legal proceedings.