The Anubhav group of companies was founded by C.Natesan, a commerce graduate from Chennai's Vivekananda College and a chartered accountancy course dropout. Natesan started his career in 1983 by launching a consultancy firm called "Yours Faithfully Consultancy". In 1984, he started a construction company with three partners. Three years later in 1987, he closed this venture and set up the Anubhav Foundation which became the mother company of his Future enterprises.
Anubhav group (The Anubhav Teak plantation Scam or simply The Teak Plantations Scams of 1990s) is often included in the list of scams that occurred in post liberalized India in the 1990s and called "The Great Plantation Scam of the 1990s". However, plantation related frauds continue to occur in the country, due to unsuspecting people lured by promises of high interests, a more recent case being that of Timber World resorts and plantations ltd. that was launched by a catering college graduate Ashwani Sud from Delhi that turned out to be a similar scam in 2009. Similarly, in 2012, hundreds of Gujaratis lost their money in a similar tree plantation scam floated by the Ellisbridge (Ahmedabad) based company "Golden Trees Plantation Ltd."
Abnubhav was not the first group to do this. The first attempt to promote private investment in teak plantations occurred in 1991, when a Hyderabad based company Sanghi Plantations, introduced a scheme offering Investors teak trees at a nominal cost of Rs 1,261 with what later turned out to be an unrealistic return of Rs 50,000 after 20 years. Teak plantations typically take 50–60 years before giving returns, are extremely susceptible to weather and have rarely given dependable returns in India. However, in the light of general ignorance on the part of most lay people, Anubhav entered this foray of marketing lucrative teak plantation schemes along with companies such as the Parasrampuria group, DSJ group and the Cochin based "Sterling Tree Magnum", all of whom promised similar high yet unrealistic returns. During the early 1990s, Teak plantations mushroomed in southern India with 40 such companies were registered in Madras and eight in Bangalore from January to September 1992. Most of these companies did not have adequate crop insurance and none of them were able to live up to their promises. All of them had skewed capital structures. After the 1998 scam and subsequent investigations, CRISIL subsequently reported that on an average, these teak plantation companies had a promoter's contribution of just Rs. 35 Lakh (Rs. 3.5 Million) for every investor's share of Rs. 300 crore.
Anubhav plantations (1992-1998) was an Indian Chennai based plantation company. It sold shares in teak plantations on guaranteed interests and later Diversified to other schemes through four principal companies: Anubhav Agrotech, Anubhav Green Farms & Resorts, Anubhav Plantations, and Anubhav Royal Orchards Exports.
Meanwhile, in interviews and announcements in news papers, Natesan unveiled Future plans to forward-integrate from teak into furniture and to import machinery to make it. This led to a further increase in small Investors. However, his growth strategy was focused mainly on mobilizing funds from Investors rather than actually investing in plantations, plants, land and factories. The group had already raised vast sums of money to the tune of more than 400 Crore rupees from the public in the form of fixed deposits, so called "teak units", and a combination of fixed deposits and teak units. Natesan was extremely secretive about the financial performance of his group and this was never revealed to Investors who were happy as long as they received regular interest payments. Subsequent examinations of the company's accounts revealed that it was posting far higher incomes than its real profits. For example: In 1996-97, the company posted a net profit of Rs. 38.69 lakh (3,869,000) while its plantation income amounted to Rs. 35.32 crore (Rs. 353,200,000). A total of nearly 3500 teak plantation based companies were set up in the 1990s in India, all promising interests to the tune of 21-24% when bank deposits gave an interest of 5-7%.
In January 1998, cheques issued by Anubhav to its Investors began to bounce. Some Investors reported that other than the first two payments, all the cheques had bounced. Most of these Investors were middle class and retired Indian working class people, who had invested their savings in Anubhav. Their amounts varied between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 50,000 per person. They included Indians from commercial large cities such as Mumbai as well as smaller cities and towns such as Pune, Shimla, Trichy and Sangli. In 1998, the company started to default on payments to its Investors. On 2 December 1998, a letter was sent to all the Investors of Anubhav group to come to the Woodlands hotel in Chennai to receive their long due payments. When some of the Investors landed at Anubhav's offices in Royapettah, they were met with locked doors. The company had closed down, with Natesan absconding.
In its proceedings, the high court observed that Anubhav Agrotech Ltd. was one among the Anubhav Group, which, in January 1999, became Anubhav Agro Developers. The court observed that there was proof that Anubhav plantation funds were diverted.
After seven years of judicial custody, Natesan was released on bail in 2007. Of the 107,12,33,696 rupees invested by small Investors, the company refunded Rs. 100,44,64,461 to 31,431 depositors. About Rs. 7 crore has still not been refunded to 2,044 depositors.
