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A jewellery chain with several stores in Mumbai has allegedly duped hundreds through a Ponzi scheme promising high returns. Torres jewellery has, however, shifted the blame to its CEO and other staff members, alleging that they conned customers through a fraudulent scheme and also robbed and vandalised stores part of the chain.
Torres has six stores in and around Mumbai. Since yesterday, hundreds have reached its Dadar store to demand their money back. Police have registered a case and named the holding firm Platinum Hern Private Limited, its two directors, CEO, general manager and a store in-charge as accused. The accused have been charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy, among others.
Torres Company ponzi scheme dupes people promising 25% monthly; investors protest outside Torres Jewellery's office over unpaid returns; company points fingers at CEO@AnujRayate reports pic.twitter.com/Z5y6hYJHic
— News Agency (@ndtv) January 7, 2025
What Was The Scheme
The shops opened in February last year at six locations in and around Mumbai. They sold gemstone jewellery and also offered a bonus scheme. Under this scheme, a customer who invested Rs 1 lakh would get a pendant with a moissanite stone worth Rs 10,000. These stones, the customers have now realised, were fake. Customers were also promised 6 per cent interest on their investment to be paid out across 52 weeks. This interest rate climbed to 11 per cent. Customers said they got some payouts over the past year, but they stopped about two months back.
The Bumper Draw
About seven days back, Torres posted a video on YouTube announcing that it will provide 11 per cent interest on investments made before January 5, after which the rate will dip. The company encouraged cash payments by offering 0.5 per cent extra interest. The move aimed to draw a flood of investments. On January 6, the stores were shut as the investors realised they had been scammed.
The Investors
The bulk of these investors are from the lower middle class and include vegetable sellers and small traders who were lured by the promise of big returns on their investments. The amount invested under this scheme ranges from a few thousand rupees to crores. The seven people who filed the police complaint have said they had invested over Rs 13 crore between them.
One of the investors News Agency spoke to said her friends told her about the scheme. "We did get some payouts. We want to ask the government, it got tax. So why is it not helping us now?"
Another investor said she won't leave Torres' Dadar office till she gets her money back. "It is my hard-earned money. I deposited the money on Sunday and then this happened. This business ran for eight-nine months, where was the government? Police are calling us crazy, where were they all this time?"
Asked what made him trust the scheme, an investor said the brochure had the company's GST number and CIN number. "I thought it is so systematic, so the government is aware of this. I request the government, we don't want interest, but give us our money back."
Company Claims Coup
Amid investors' frustration regarding their lost money, Torres' official YouTube account has uploaded a video, claiming that its CEO led a coup and facilitated robbery at the company's showrooms. "Under the leadership of two Torres employees, CEO Tausif Reyaz and Chief Analyst Abhishek Gupta, a coup was organised in the team tonight and Torres stores were robbed," the video's voiceover says.
The video shows people vandalising stores and robbing money. The voiceover described these people as "accomplices" of Reyaz and Gupta.
"Earlier, we learnt that they organised a fraudulent scheme and systematically appropriated the company's money for many months... Realising that punishment was inevitable for them, they decided to involve other employees in their crime," it added.
CCTV visuals, it said, show about 100 people breaking jewellery cases, opening safes and stealing money. Torres said they have already handed over the evidence to police.