S73 · E25

The £170 Million Diamond Scam

Charismatic businessman Vashi Dominguez sold a vision of opulence and success to investors. They invested £170 million in his high-end jewellery stores and were told their cash was secured against a large stock of diamonds. But when the business went bust, there were hardly any diamonds in the safe. Now, both the cash and the conman have gone. Reporter Richard Bilton investigates a world where nothing was quite what it seemed, where staff pretended to be customers to make the shops look busy and sales figures were massively inflated.