Jakarta. The Indonesian Supreme Court has acquitted the founder of investment company MeMiles from financial fraud charges more than a year after the company came under scrutiny for collecting over Rp 750 billion ($51 million) in public fund and allegedly running a fraudulent investment scheme.

Kamal Tarachand Mirchandani aka Sanjay, the company’s founder and chief executive, was acquitted along with four other executives by a district court in East Java last October. The Supreme Court on its official website on Monday announced it rejected an appeal by prosecutors.

News website Detik.com reported the three-member panel was presided over by Justice Suhadi.

MeMiles, registered formally as PT Kam & Kam, has involved socialites and singers to endorse its products. 

During the early stage of investigation, police also interrogated Ari Sigit, the grandson of former President Soeharto. Ari allegedly received two luxurious cars from MeMiles although he wasn't named a suspect.

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) suspended MeMiles operations in August 2019 following reports of suspected frauds. 

Investors were promised valuable gifts from cellular phones to cars to induce them to top up their investments while also attract new investors. 

In December 2019, the East Java Police began criminal investigation and seized hundreds of gold bars, 28 cars and Rp 148 billion in cash from the company.

In a dramatic news conference last January, police showed a pile of bank notes still wrapped in plastic bags and presented the company’s executives in orange detainee clothes.

Police said the Surabaya-based company has collected Rp 761 billion and recruited at least 268 investors within just eight months.

MeMiles is alleged to have run the so-called Ponzi scheme -- it collected fresh funds from new investors and used them to pay previous investors as purported returns.

However, the Surabaya District Court ruled that prosecutors had failed to provide strong evidence of investment fraud and acquitted all the defendants.