"Gemini Chit Fund Landmark fraud case. The Gemini Chit Fund Corporation Ltd was incorporated by Abdul Gaffar Mohamed Ibrahim in 1964 as a private limited company. The chit fund scheme originated in India. Usually practiced in rural societies, it is both a lending and saving scheme in which investors are also borrowers. Members make contributions to a common pool at periodic intervals. At the end of each period, the pooled funds are auctioned and the person with the lowest bid wins. Rural chit fund schemes usually involve ten people.
The Gemini Chit Fund attracted between 40,000 and 50,000 members, and promised high returns on investment. In 1973, Abdul Gaffar was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust amounting to $3.2 million. The loss resulting from his crimes was estimated at $50 million. In sentencing Gaffar to life imprisonment, trial judge Choor Singh dubbed the case the swindle of the century."