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business told staff to remove these numbers from diamonds: “He mentioned that clients didn’t care about GIA numbers and that it was a waste of time. So he instructed us to remove them.”
Vashi: Jewellery boss in £170m scam told shop staff to pretend to be customers
This could have devastating consequences when the time came to sell the diamonds on, because without that GIA number, it can be hard to prove the value of the stone in any subsequent transactions.
One executive who invested money into Vashi, Iqbal Latif, says he was duped out of a multi-million pound fortune.
“He targeted certain people where the perpetrators felt that they could suck out money, it’s as simple as that. People that were unsophisticated, who trusted others,” he says.
BBC Panorama has seen liquidation reports that show Vashi owed his investors £167m, while Vashi himself took out £30m in dividends.
He transferred cash between his businesses and set up a “bogus” warranty company, then made a claim to the administrators of one of his failed businesses using the warranties as an asset – something the administrators claim was done deceptively.
Metropolitan Police detectives were told in November 2021 about the scale of the potential fraud. Their initial meeting with investors is understood to have been March 2023, but a few days later wrote: “It is the view of the DCI [Detective Chief Inspector] and investigating officer that it is unlikely the Metropolitan Police will conduct this investigation due to the scale and complexity of the alleged fraud.”
The Serious Fraud Squad uses a similar guideline. A source says: “With fewer staff and less resources, there is a prioritisation matrix which was set up three years ago.” The collapse of the Vashi businesses is not seen as a priority.
One of the investors, Mark Schneider, says: “The speed at which supposedly professional bodies distance themselves from people like Vashi is astonishing, because I can’t see the legal principles of fraud and intent changing.”
The Metropolitan Police told Panorama it does not have a record of the investors’ report. The Serious Fraud Office did not respond to questions about its guidelines or investigations.
Clive Schlee is trying to recover Vashi’s stock of jewellery by opening a new store to sell all the remaining diamonds.
Mr Schlee said: “I want to show the Vashi investors and staff that we had good intentions when we joined the company. We lost our money as well.”
But without Vashi Dominguez, the inevitable outcome is that many people will not get their cash back. “I have lost my diamond,” says diamond dealer Michael Hirsh of TOSHI, who said he knows of customers who have lost as much as £5m.
“They trusted him.”