Ravindra Nath Soni, the Indian-origin owner of Dubai’s BlueChip Group and the main suspect in one of the UAE’s largest investment frauds, has been captured in India, concluding an 18-month international search.
On Monday, Kanpur police announced that Soni, 44, was apprehended on November 30, 2025, in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where he had been concealing himself. A reward of Rs 10,000 was offered for tips leading to his capture.
At a press briefing, Anjali Vishwakarma (IPS), Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Law & Order, Kanpur Nagar, hailed the arrest as a “major breakthrough”. She detailed that a special team located Soni using technical and human intelligence, then raided his Dehradun hideout and brought him to Kanpur.
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“Soni swindled many victims by promising high monthly returns via his Dubai-based BlueChip company. He has a lengthy criminal record with three previous fraud cases. We are now tracing the money and will seize all related bank accounts and assets,” Vishwakarma informed reporters.
Local TV footage displayed Soni flanked by two officers as he faced the media.
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The arrest comes over a year after Khaleej Times first exposed the BlueChip collapse in a series of investigative articles starting in June 2024, when the Dubai Court of First Instance issued an arrest warrant against Soni for failing to repay Dh10.05 million to a cheque-holder.
BlueChip, headquartered in the Al Jawhara Building in Bur Dubai, guaranteed investors 3% monthly returns (36% annually) on a minimum $10,000 investment locked for 18 months. The scheme failed in March 2024 when payments stopped abruptly, leaving hundreds of UAE residents, many Indian expats, with losses surpassing $100 million (Dh367 million).
Investors received bounced cheques, the office was vacated overnight, and Soni disappeared along with top staff.
Khaleej Times investigations found BlueChip was the latest in a line of fraudulent enterprises operated by Soni from the same Bur Dubai location. Between 2018 and 2020, he managed Acme Management Consultancy and Acme Global General Trading, which also vanished after allegedly misappropriating millions from investors.
Court records accessed by Khaleej Times show Soni was previously ordered by a Dubai court in 2023 to repay Dh2.05 million to another victim. In India, he was arrested in 2022 in Aligarh for running a “double-your-money” scheme and faces separate charges in Panipat, Haryana, for fraud and criminal intimidation.
In May 2024, Khaleej Times reported BlueChip transferred $41.35 million to an unidentified cryptocurrency wallet just days before shutting down. Additionally, Cyprus-based trading platform MetaQuotes ended its deal with BlueChip in 2023, citing “fraudulent practices”.
“This is a big relief, but the fight is not over until we recover our money,” said a Dubai-based investor who lost Dh1.2 million.
