In 2013, diamond dealer Vashi Dominguez rebranded his business, previously known as Diamond Manufacturers, to Vashi and expanded to seven stores across London.
The company collapsed in 2023 with more than £170 million ($AUD350 million) in debt, and according to the report from BBC Panorama, Dominguez vanished.
The latest reporting on this matter has revealed that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not investigate the company despite receiving a detailed report from a whistleblower almost an entire year before it collapsed because of an 'error'.
According to the BBC report, the whistleblower – a former chief technology officer with the company – shared documents with the SFO in May 2022 and warned authorities that the owner was defrauding investors and falsifying accounts.
“SFO documents obtained by Mr Ames through a subject access request, and seen by the BBC, show that although SFO staff believed Mr Ames to be a genuine whistleblower, they closed his case the following day without contacting him,” the report reveals.
“The internal document says: "Source referred to AF [Action Fraud]" - the UK national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, run by City of London Police. But Mr Ames says he didn't hear back from the SFO or Action Fraud, and Action Fraud told Panorama it never actually received a referral about the case.
“The SFO has now confirmed it did not pass on Mr Ames' referral.”
According to the report, the SFO suggested that an “administrative error” was responsible for the delayed response to the report of wrongdoing. Vashi continued trading for nearly one year after the report to the SFO.
Former employees have alleged a range of other serious offences, including the suggestion that employees were ordered to pretend to be customers to give the impression that stores were busy, and that diamond inscriptions were altered.
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