Summary:
Panaji: Sydney Lemos, a businessman from Goa who was convicted by a Dubai court for the $200 million Exential scam has moved the appellate court. The company paid profits initially but stopped paying investors after the scheme collapsed in March 2016 and the Dubai Economic Department shut down the company’s offices in July 2016. Investors fell prey to his rogue employee who instigated them and manufactured panic,” Menezes said.Sydney Lemos, 37, and his senior accounts specialist Ryan de Souza, 25, were convicted of duping thousands of investors from Dubai in a Ponzi scheme that offered 120% annual returns on a minimum investment of $25,000. Lemos was sentenced to 500-odd years imprisonment for the financial fraud.Legal advisor to Lemos, Wilbur Menezes told TOI that his client, a promoter of Exential, has moved the Court of appeals through a local counsel, and he is confident of the appeal ending positively.Menezes further said that Sydney and his company intend to settle claims of all investors and many have already finalized settlement terms with them.“My client admits that the company could have handled the situation better and regrets how things unfolded..