A fake investment racket worth more than $200 million in Dubai involving two Indians have been busted. A Dubai court on Sunday sentenced 37-year-old Sydney Lemos and his senior accounts specialist 25-year-old Ryan de Souza to 517 years each in jail for duping thousands of investors.

According to a report in The Times of India, Lemos in his late forties cheated people who invested from their retirement and lifetime savings. He posed a Ponzi scheme as a legitimate foreign currency trading programme to fool his clients. Lemos who ran Exential Group, a foreign exchange trading firm lured people to invest a minimum amount of $25,000 promising 120 percent annual returns.

However, it resulted in losses of approximately 50 million dirhams to their clients. The company initially received investors as they paid them profits but stopped after Dubai Economic Department shut it down in March 2016.

Lemos, who is from Mapusa in Goa, was a junior football player. He has also sponsored FC Goa club in 2015 and owned FC Bardez club in Dubai. He was first arrested in December 2016 but was let out on bail. He was later arrested in mid-January 2017.

Meanwhile, Ryan, a resident of Siolim, was held at the Dubai airport in February 2017. Lemos' wife  Valany who was also a part of the fraud managed to flee the country. A case has also been registered against her for illegally entering the sealed office and taking out documents. Media reports in Dubai state that Lemos and Ryan can appeal, however, even a huge reduction in their sentence would still result in a life term at Dubai Central Prison. Neither of them is likely to be released.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 11, 2018 07:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).