Torres ponzi scheme fraud: EOW searches 6 places, seizes Rs 3 crore cash, names five more suspects

EOW officials said that during investigation they found that the accused have distributed 15 cars to investors to lure more investors. Gold, silver ornaments and stones have been seized.

An EOW officer said that around 15 officers have been pressed in the case for investigation. On Thursday 350 more investors came forward and registered their investment details with the EOW.

On January 6, thousands of investors in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Mira Road gathered outside the showrooms of Torres’ jewellery stores in Dadar, Mira Road and Sanpada, staging protests after they stopped receiving their due interest in December last week. On Tuesday police filed an FIR mentioning the fraud amount as Rs 13.48 crore from 66 different investors.

The Torres brand, run by Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd, has allegedly floated multiple schemes offering weekly interests, considered ‘too good to be true’ with around 500% annual interest on investments. Initially investors, who were lured with incentives like iPhones, jewelries and other expensive gifts like branded bags, cars, appartments were promised returns regularly, but in December last week they began defaulting. The FIR states that more than 1.25 lakh individuals invested money. Police officers said that the total fraud amount may be worth Rs 1,000 crore. Many investors broke their FDs, took loans with high interest and even mortgaged their jewellery and houses to invest money into the lucrative schemes.

EOW DCP Sangramsinh Nishandar said, “The Torres scam is a combination of ponzi scheme and multi-level marketing (MLM) fraud. The accused fraudsters used same authentication certificate card templates for allegedly Moissanite stones to give them across investors irrespective of the fact that every stone has different weight, karrat and year. They also used lucky draws and tokens to attact investors. The EOW is taking all possible measures to protect the interests of the investors/depositors.”

So far four FIRs have been filed by Shivaji Park (Mumbai police), APMC Market, Rabodi and Mira Road police stations. In the FIRs Tausif Reyaz alias John Carter, Ukranian nationals Victoriia Kovalenko and Olena Stoian are shown wanted accused. Olena is suspected to be the mastermind behind the fraud and is accused of similarly pulling of a fraud in Turkey. Police are verifying it.

Accused claims to be whistleblower

Tausif Reyaz alias John Carter, the alleged Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd which runs the jewelry store chain Torres, has claimed himself to be a whistleblower in the alleged fraud case.

Speaking to a Mumbai based Youtube channel on the phone, Reyaz claimed that he worked as consultant for the Torres company that initially told him that they floated lucrative interest offering schemes for promotional purposes to establish their brand. Later, they were supposed to end these schemes. “I worked as a consultant for the company and not as a director. I arranged office premises, furniture and the logistics, but was never involved in the functioning of stores. While running away with people’s money, they put all blame on me and escaped,” Reyaz claimed.

Reyaz claimed that he and CA Abhishek Gupta along with director Sarvesh Surve acted as whistleblowers after at least three months of collecting evidence of the alleged financial irregularities in the company, and submitted 154-page report as part of the complaints with the Mumbai police via emails and personal meetings with EOW officials on December 30, 2024 and January 3, 2025.

He also claimed that he had sent Surve to Yes bank and Kotak bank and had Rs 11 crore frozen in the company’s bank accounts on January 1.

Did police arrest a whistleblower?

If claims of Tausif Reyaz are to be believed then the Shivaji Park police arrested one of alleged whistleblowers; Sarvesh Surve (the director currently in EOW’s custody). The police are investigating claims made by the other alleged whistleblowers, Reyaz and Abhishek Gupta. Gupta was at the EOW office on Thursday for the whole day facing inquiry.

The Torres company has announced Rs 2,00,000 reward for Reyaz and Gupta claiming they encourages other staff to rob Torres stores and commit the fraud.

Reyaz has however claimed that the allegations of robbery against him are bogus and said that the CCTV footage shared by the accused company via their social media platforms were made using AI tools and the company’s CCTV system was controlled by the accused persons from Ukraine. “They said that I committed robbery on December 27. If that is the truth then why would they post a message on Instagram on January 31 giving me the best employee award?,” asked Reyaz.

Police are verifying the contents of the emails sent by the alleged whistleblowers to the police to check if they are genuine or was an attempt to safeguard themselves from the police action.