Torres scam: Police arrest director and two foreign nationals

The Shivaji Park police have arrested three peoplemdashthe director of a jewellery brand an Overseas Citizen of India OCI and a citizen of Uzbekistanmdashfor allegedly duping investors of R1348 crore through a Ponzi scheme The accused lured victims with promises of high weekly returns exclusive offers and rewards for referrals via a flashy app An lookout circular LOC has been issued against two absconding accused who are suspected to have fled the countryThe arrested individuals include Sarvesh Surve the company director Valentina Kumari an OCI national and Tania Kasatova an Uzbekistan citizen Police suspect the fraudrsquos scale could exceed Rs 700 crore with statements from victims still being recordedSarvesh Surve the company director arrested by the copsThe scheme targeted investors through a jewellery brand named Torres which operated six stores in Mumbai including branches in Dadar Girgaon Sanpada Mira Road and Kandivli Investors were lured via the companyrsquos app ldquoTorres Clubrdquo which displayed investment statuses and promised weekly returnsInvestor accountsJanardhan Gawandi an investor said ldquoWe trusted the scheme because we were receiving regular returns until December The company even planned a oneyear anniversary celebration and promised to gift flats to investors But suddenly they shut operations and we are panickingrdquoInvestors gathered outside the Torres Jewellery store in DadarPradeep Vaishya a vegetable vendor and the complainant in the case explained how he was duped of R45 crore ldquoI initially invested R2 lakh after visiting their Dadar store opening in February last year They promised 6 per cent returns which increased to 10 per cent later As Torres expanded opening five more branches trust grew But in December an employee informed us the company was shutting down and the CEO assured salaries would be paid By January 6 the store was shuttered and we approached the policerdquoVaishya added that he had taken loans to invest further in the scheme which promised lucrative returns for buying moissanite stones Gawandi elaborated on the apprsquos functioning ldquoThe Torres Club app displayed our investments and weekly returns It also rewarded us with R6000 for bringing in new investors I convinced many people to join and was earning Rs 25000 monthly Now the company is gone and wersquore left in despairrdquoInvestors outside Shivaji Park police station PicsAshish RajeFaizan Khan another victim shared ldquoEach moissanite stone had a return rate When targets were met we received coupons They called us their brand ambassadors during their seminars offline and on YouTube but now theyrsquove absconded and their shops are shutrdquoldquoWe are residents of Mankhurd and our family invested R10ndash15 lakh in the scheme Initially we received returns as promised The company claimed we would get returns for up to 52 weeks but now everything is very uncertainrdquo said Nilima Sandeep Kadam another investor ldquoOur family invested R3 lakh after seeing other family members receive returns Tempted by the promise of huge profits I decided to invest But on January 6 the shop was shut and now we are panickingrdquo said Abdul Shaikh a makeup artistTorres app now displays a notice claiming its employees looted their shopsPolice investigationThe Shivaji Park police revealed that Sarvesh Surversquos identification documents were used to make him the company director and beneficiary The other two arrested women were employees An LOC has been issued against two absconding accused A police official stated ldquoWe suspect the scam to be worth R700 crore and the amount may increase as more victims come forward to register complaints Torres stores in Dadar Girgaon Sanpada Mira Road and Kandivli were operational until recentlyrdquoTorresrsquos claimsInterestingly the Torres app now displays a notice claiming its employees looted their shops The notice urges investors to register complaints against an individual named Abhishek allegedly involved in a robbery at one of their branches Torres has promised to return the investorsrsquo money but the claims remain unverified Five individuals have been booked under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors MPID Act 1999