Columbus Man Suspected In "Cash Back," Ponzi, Affinity Real Estate Scam Feels The Heat Of Criminal Probe; Trusting Acquaintances Left Holding The Bag

In Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports:

• A thief used a pen and paper to steal nearly $1.5 million from a group of well-educated, upper-middle-class Columbus professionals. [...] One man became rich; the others were left nearly penniless. [...] Somnath Ganguly, 47, remains free. But the Delaware County resident faces mounting legal troubles, including civil lawsuits and criminal investigations for the real-estate deals he orchestrated during the past four years. Local investors pray that justice will be done.

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• Columbus and Westerville police both have sent cases to the Franklin County prosecutor's office detailing fraud and forgery. "He is just a complete thief, that's the bottom line," said Sgt. Harold Hansen, of Columbus' economic crimes unit.

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• The investors all are professionals: scientists, doctors and computer experts. They also are members of Columbus' Bengali community who say they were taken by a fellow native of the Bengal region of India. [...] All now say they were conned and betrayed. They said Ganguly gained their trust first by becoming a friend and then by giving them big returns on early investments. In true Ponzi-scheme fashion, those big returns came from the pockets of other investors.

For more, see Investor nightmare (Trusting professionals unwittingly buy into a housing deal that leaves them in financial ruin, and they want answers).