2015), and IMA Women Empowerment Business Module (established 2015). Official investigations begin The company first came to the attention of authorities in 2015 because of the large discounts that IMA Jewels was giving on purchases of gold in its stores, but nothing was done because of a legal loophole and inaction by investors. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suspected the company of being a Ponzi scheme and tipped off the Revenue Department. However, the latter was unable to take action for two reasons: first, the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act (PIDFE) only allowed action to protect depositors, and an Islamic banking company is structured so that people paying money to it are legally partners in the business and not investors making deposits; and second, no-one actually complained whilst the company was still paying them. By 2017, Mansoor Khan was being investigated, with searches of his properties by the Revenue Department in April of that year, and his not having filed income tax returns since 2015. On 16 November 2018, the Assistant Commissioner of Bangalore North Sub-Division issued a forfeiture notice against IMA, which Mansoor dismissed in a public statement posted on Facebook. That same month, a public notice was issued by the Revenue Department asking for investors with complaints to come forward; however, none did. In the following month, December, Mansoor Khan contended in a formal reply to investigators that the company did not accept deposits from investors, but dealt in precious stones and metals; that it did not require licence from the RBI or the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); that lack of depositors meant that the PIDFE Act did not apply; and that the company was a Limited Liability Partnership with partners not depositors. The authorities could have taken action with the SEBI and RBI attaching the company's properties, as they had in other earlier cases of other companies, had not the assistant commissioner's powers to do so been curtailed by the Karnataka state government at the same time, for unrelated reasons. Closure and aftermath In March 2019, the company ceased paying dividends to investors. The company's offices were closed to customers on 29 May 2019. Complaints by investors, which numbered 41,000 within three weeks of the closure, finally enabled investigators to proceed where they had been unable to before. By 17 June 2019, the Indian police were investigating allegations