Mumbai:
A jewelry chain with a number of shops in Mumbai has allegedly duped tons of by a Ponzi scheme promising excessive returns. Torres jewelry has, nevertheless, shifted the blame to its CEO and different employees members, alleging that they conned prospects by a fraudulent scheme and likewise robbed and vandalised shops a part of the chain.
Torres has six shops in and round Mumbai. Since yesterday, tons of have reached its Dadar retailer to demand their a refund. Police have registered a case and named the holding agency Platinum Hern Non-public Restricted, its two administrators, CEO, normal supervisor and a retailer in-charge as accused. The accused have been charged with dishonest and legal conspiracy, amongst others.
Torres Firm ponzi scheme dupes folks promising 25% month-to-month; buyers protest exterior Torres Jewelry’s workplace over unpaid returns; firm factors fingers at CEO@AnujRayate reviews pic.twitter.com/Z5y6hYJHic
— NDTV (@ndtv) January 7, 2025
What Was The Scheme
The outlets opened in February final 12 months at six areas in and round Mumbai. They bought gemstone jewelry and likewise provided a bonus scheme. Below this scheme, a buyer who invested Rs 1 lakh would get a pendant with a moissanite stone price Rs 10,000. These stones, the shoppers have now realised, had been pretend. Prospects had been additionally promised 6 per cent curiosity on their funding to be paid out throughout 52 weeks. This rate of interest climbed to 11 per cent. Prospects stated they acquired some payouts over the previous 12 months, however they stopped about two months again.
The Bumper Draw
About seven days again, Torres posted a video on YouTube saying that it’s going to present 11 per cent curiosity on investments made earlier than January 5, after which the speed will dip. The corporate inspired money funds by providing 0.5 per cent additional curiosity. The transfer aimed to attract a flood of investments. On January 6, the shops had been shut because the buyers realised that they had been scammed.
The Buyers
The majority of those buyers are from the decrease center class and embrace vegetable sellers and small merchants who had been lured by the promise of massive returns on their investments. The quantity invested beneath this scheme ranges from a number of thousand rupees to crores. The seven individuals who filed the police grievance have stated that they had invested over Rs 13 crore between them.
One of many buyers NDTV spoke to stated her mates informed her concerning the scheme. “We did get some payouts. We wish to ask the federal government, it acquired tax. So why is it not serving to us now?”
One other investor stated she will not depart Torres’ Dadar workplace until she will get her a refund. “It’s my hard-earned cash. I deposited the cash on Sunday after which this occurred. This enterprise ran for eight-nine months, the place was the federal government? Police are calling us loopy, the place had been all of them this time?”
Requested what made him belief the scheme, an investor stated the brochure had the corporate’s GST quantity and CIN quantity. “I assumed it’s so systematic, so the federal government is conscious of this. I request the federal government, we do not need curiosity, however give us our a refund.”
Firm Claims Coup
Amid buyers’ frustration concerning their misplaced cash, Torres’ official YouTube account has uploaded a video, claiming that its CEO led a coup and facilitated theft on the firm’s showrooms. “Below the management of two Torres staff, CEO Tausif Reyaz and Chief Analyst Abhishek Gupta, a coup was organised within the staff tonight and Torres shops had been robbed,” the video’s voiceover says.
The video reveals folks vandalising shops and robbing cash. The voiceover described these folks as “accomplices” of Reyaz and Gupta.
“Earlier, we learnt that they organised a fraudulent scheme and systematically appropriated the corporate’s cash for a lot of months… Realising that punishment was inevitable for them, they determined to contain different staff of their crime,” it added.
CCTV visuals, it stated, present about 100 folks breaking jewelry instances, opening safes and stealing cash. Torres stated they’ve already handed over the proof to police.