Former World Billiards Champion Michael Ferreira and three others were arrested in Mumbai on Tuesday night in connection with the Qnet scam. The Padma Bhushan winner, along with Magaral Balaji, Srinivas Vanka and Malcolm Desai, has been taken to Hyderabad by Central Crime Station officials, The Times of India reported. The four were accused of running a multi-crore illegal money circulation scheme called Qnet, which was earlier named Questnet.

Investigators said lakhs of investors were duped in the scam, in which Qnet and its franchisees sold herbal products, magnetic disks and holiday schemes among other things. The company, run by the four accused, also used the banned binary pyramid model in marketing schemes, and ran a Ponzi scheme, ANI reported. Investors did not get the returns they were promised, after which eight complainants lodged cases against the company based in Hong Kong.

Last week, a special court rejected a bail plea by Ferreira, after the public prosecutor said the accused in the case were running the illegal scheme even during the investigation. The Supreme Court had also rejected anticipatory bail pleas from the four accused.