Arrest Quest

Apr. 27 (LBO) – Seven persons who were caught promoting the GoldQuest network marketing scheme have been arrested in southern Sri Lanka, police said. Central Bank has now established a special investigation unit to look into pyramid scams, referral frauds, as well as other violations of laws administered by the regulator. The seven who were having a GoldQuest promotional scheme were arrested under the new anti-pyamiding provisions of the Banking Act, police in the town of Karandeniya in the southern provincial, Galle district said.

"We arrested them on a complaint from the Central Bank," Officer-in-Charge Kapila Kumara said.

This is the second time GoldQuest upliners have been arrested after the Central Bank brought in new anti-pyramiding laws to combat referral and network marketing schemes that operated as endless chains.

Last December, police in the North Central provincial town of Anuradhapura caught two GoldQuest upliners while they were conducting a seminar.

They were residents of suburb of Colombo.

After the furor surrounding GoldQuest's activities in Sri Lanka in 2004, and the subsequent collapse of the scheme, author