Jewelry Boss in £170-M Scam Told Shop Staff to Pretend to Be Customers

Staff at a luxury jewelry retailer were instructed to pose as customers to mislead investors in the UK’s biggest diamond fraud, Richard Bilton reported for BBC News.

Diamond dealer Vashi Dominguez's retail chain collapsed in 2023 with £170 million in debts. (Photo: Thebunker555 Wikimedia Commons) 

The scheme allowed diamond dealer Vashi Dominguez to secure fresh funding to prop up his retail chain, which collapsed in 2023 with £170 million in debts. Investors were told the company’s diamond stock was worth £157 million, but in reality it was valued at just £100,000.

Dominguez has since disappeared. Despite the scale of the fraud, both the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Fraud Office have declined to investigate.

BBC Panorama interviewed former staff, investors, and financial experts piecing together the wreckage to understand how Dominguez deceived so many and why authorities have failed to pursue him.

“This is bigger than Hatton Garden, Brink’s-Mat, and the Great Train Robbery combined,” said investor Michael Moszynski, an advertising executive.