Mumbai: ED searches in Torres Ponzi case linked money laundering case

The national bureau had immoderate clip backmost filed a transgression ailment nether the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR to initiate investigation.

More than 3,700 investors person truthful acold approached the Mumbai constabulary with complaints of being cheated and the fraud magnitude is implicit Rs 57 crore, according to officials.

The jewellery institution that owns the Torres marque is accused of cheating investors of crores of rupees done a operation of Ponzi and multi-level selling (MLM) schemes. The scam came to airy erstwhile hundreds of investors gathered astatine the jewellery brand’s store situated astatine Torres Vastu Centre gathering successful Dadar (West) aboriginal this period arsenic the institution stopped paying sums promised to them.

The constabulary had arrested 3 accused– Tazagul Xasatov, a Uzbekistan national, Valentina Ganesh Kumar, a Russian nationalist and Sarvesh Surve — each elder executives of the firm, successful this lawsuit till now.

Investigators person said that the promoters of Torres jewellery marque had promised cars, flats, acquisition cards and hampers to pull investors.

The Bombay High Court connected Wednesday said constabulary officials committed dereliction of work by failing to instrumentality punctual enactment successful the Torres concern scam. “Nobody has acted with alacrity,” a part seat of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale said.

Both the constabulary and the ED are looking to find the mastermind of the fraud, who started the jewellery institution (Platinum Hern) that owns the Torres marque and from wherever the accused got the archetypal money for the firm, the sources said.