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Monica Kapoor’s name has now been added to the list of those who looted the country’s financial system with a pre-planned strategy and fled abroad. Senior journalist Manoj Tibrewal Aakash did a deep analysis on his show
Monica Kapoor arrested from US
New Delhi: A woman who evaded the eyes of India's biggest investigation agency CBI, Interpol and Enforcement Directorate for 25 years. Who duped crores of rupees of hundrends of people in not one but many cities and then disappeared from the country. And now when the world thought that this matter was lost in the darkness of history, at that very moment Indian agencies arrested her from America and brought her back. We are talking about Monica Kapoor - one of India's most wanted economic criminals, who is now in the clutches of law after 25 years.
Who is Monica Kapoor? And why is her name being counted among the most shocking stories of economic crimes? The story from her absconding till now is no less than a thriller film.
Veteran journalist Manoj Tibrewal Aakash said in the popular show 'The MTA Speaks' that in 1999 there was a wave of liberalization in India. There was a boom in the stock markets and real estate sector. People were looking for new options of investment and a private company named 'Vibrant Investment and Trading Pvt. Ltd.' came to cash in on those dreams. The director of this company was Monika Kapoor, who lived in the posh South Extension area of Delhi. Her profile was high-profile — fashion shows, social networking, and foreign contacts.
The company claimed to give investors a return of 15% to 20% every three months. They had big projects in real estate, gems and jewellery, mining and international trading — such was the publicity. The company organised glamorous seminars in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Indore. Registration camps were set up in five-star hotels, advertisements were published on TV and newspapers and people were made to deposit huge amounts. The initial investors did get some returns, which increased the confidence in the scheme and soon thousands of people invested from ₹5,000 to ₹50 lakh.
But as soon as enough capital was collected, one day suddenly the company's office was found closed. Monika Kapoor was missing. Investors' cheques started bouncing and complaints kept increasing. When the investigation was done, it was found that about ₹84 crores had been swindled. This amount was very huge for those times – it could be worth more than Rs 500 crores in today’s terms.
The CBI took over the case in 2000. By then Monica Kapoor had left India via Nepal. She went to Singapore, then Hong Kong, and finally the US. She not only changed passports and identity cards, but also erased her digital traces. The Delhi Police, then the Intelligence Bureau and finally the CBI issued lookout circulars and red corner notices against her. In 2003, the court declared her a fugitive. But each time, she kept evading capture.
In the US, she introduced herself as ‘Monica K. D’. She settled in Chicago and established herself as a ‘Financial Energy Healer’ and ‘Spiritual Wellness Coach’. Her workshops promised “the art of drawing money from inner energy”, “karma reconstruction” and “financial detoxification”. Her YouTube channel and Instagram account had millions of views. She set up a new business there too with a new identity — but her real identity did not escape the eyes of the CBI.
In late 2022, the CBI’s new Cyber Intelligence Unit tracked her digital activity. Their suspicions were confirmed when an old Indian investor recognised her voice and mannerisms in her social media videos. The extradition process then began with Interpol and the US FBI. After months of negotiations and paperwork, Monica Kapoor was finally arrested from Chicago in May 2025. She was brought to India on July 6 and has now been produced before a Delhi court and sent to judicial custody.
Monica has been booked under several serious sections including Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The Enforcement Directorate has also started an investigation and now the case is being looked at from the angle of money laundering. Initial investigations have also revealed that Monica had also created shell companies in tax haven countries like Mauritius, Dubai and Belize, through which she transferred funds.
Now the big question is whether Monica was alone? Was any other Indian citizen or businessman also involved with her? Did she carry out this scam with the help of a bank official, a politician or a government employee? And most importantly - will the victims ever get their money back?
Among the country's biggest economic criminals, Monica Kapoor's name has now been added to the list of those who looted the country's financial system with a pre-planned strategy and fled abroad. Like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, Monica too remained away from the country for a long time, entangled in legal complications and foreign processes. But the difference is that in the other cases, there was political discussion, it even heated up in the Parliament, but Monica Kapoor's case was always suppressed - perhaps because she was a woman? Or because the complaints against her were from poor and middle class investors?
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The recent action of the CBI shows that now the agencies of India are reopening even old cases. Through cyber technology, digital tracing and international coordination, they have now become more capable than before in finding the criminals.
But it is equally important that the Indian government learns a lesson from such cases and creates a strong investment security system. Even today, thousands of people in India are getting trapped in the trap of such schemes which are not legal, but promise huge returns.
They lure them by deceiving them. Regulatory bodies like SEBI and RBI will have to be more active.
Monika's arrest is a symbolic victory. But real justice will be done only when the cheated people get their capital back, the culprits are punished and such incidents do not happen again.
