Bengaluru real estate firm dupes over 300 in suspected Rs 100-crore lease scam; MD flees
The firm, JAM, also collected money under the guise of investment, enticing individuals with promises of 2 per cent monthly returns and 4.2 per cent monthly returns for investments over Rs 30 lakh.
John Stephen In yet another real estate scam in Bengaluru, a firm that promised to help people find rental and lease housing is suspected of cheating more than 300 individuals out of over Rs 100 crore.
The company, Jones Property Management/Jones Asset Management (JAM), run by John Stephen, is allegedly behind the scam. Soon after victims began filing complaints on Monday, the Indiranagar office was shut, and Stephen has been absconding, the police said.
The police suspect the operation was a classic Ponzi scheme, where money from new investors was used to pay earlier ones until the system collapsed.
The firm allegedly targeted people struggling to find rental accommodation in Bengaluru and persuaded them to invest amounts ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. To build trust, it initially paid rent to property owners for a few months. After a few instalments, payments stopped, and the company later became unreachable.
The company also collected money as “investments,” promising monthly returns of 2 per cent and up to 4.2 per cent for investments above Rs 30 lakh, said the police.
The Indian Express spoke to multiple victims, including both homeowners who had leased their properties to JAM and tenants who took homes on lease through the firm.
One complainant, Gayathri, said her family invested Rs 37 lakh after being promised monthly returns and stable housing. The first red flag came when the company stopped paying rent to its landlord, leading to eviction pressure.
“When I asked for my money back, they refused and asked me to invest more to earn higher monthly returns. I did so and ended up losing the money,” she said.
According to the police, John Stephen is not a first-time offender. “He was earlier arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in a similar cheating case. He was released on bail and later restarted the company,” an officer said.
Attempts by The Indian Express to contact JAM went unanswered, with the listed mobile number switched off.
Apart from Bengaluru, the company also had a regional office in Chennai.
In another similar scam, the Bengaluru police arrested Vivek Keshavan, the owner of Catena Homes, in November 2025 for cheating people in a lease and rent business.
Catena Homes offered houses on lease to residents, while telling house owners that they were giving the units for rent. Many residents, mostly migrants, had taken houses on lease from the firm in Marathahalli, Banaswadi, Whitefield, and the Electronic City area. While Catena remained the bridge between house owners and the residents, the house owners were kept in the dark. People paid between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 50 lakh to get houses on lease.
The Crime Investigation Department CID, which has taken up the investigation, has filed a chargesheet in which they have found that more than Rs 50 crore has been duped.
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