Maharashtra: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided 13 locations in the Torres scam case. ED said that this includes 10 locations in Mumbai and three in Jaipur. The Economic Offenses Wing recently issued a Blue Corner Notice against nine foreign accused in this case. Eight of them are Ukrainian and one Turkish citizen. The main accused in this case is suspected of sending Rs 200 crore abroad. ED is investigating this case. ED has been conducting searches at 10 locations in Mumbai since Thursday morning. Apart from this, search operations are being conducted at 3 locations in Rajasthan. The company, which offered gold, silver and diamond jewellery to customers by opening branches named ‘Torres’ in different areas of Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, gradually started accepting investments in cash. Police have issued a Blue Corner notice against the suspected masterminds Olena Stoyan, Victoria Kovalenko, Mustafa Karakoch, Oleksandr Boravik, Oleksandr Zapichenko, Oleksandr Brunkivska, Oleksandr Tredokhib, Artem Olifarchuk and Iurchenko.
The complainant, vegetable seller Vaishya (31), has claimed that 1.25 lakh people have invested money in the Torres company in this case. So far 3,711 investors have come forward, taking the fraud amount to Rs 57 crore. ED is going to investigate all the financial transactions of Platinum Hern Private Limited since February 2013 in this case. The amount invested is in cash. It is suspected that the money was then deposited in the Dadar branch and allegedly sent abroad through hawala networks. In this case, Rs 200 crore is suspected to have been sent abroad. ED is investigating the matter. Torres had implemented several investment schemes. In these, they were lured by promising six percent interest every week. Thousands of investors from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Mira Road gathered outside Torres’ offices in Dadar, Mira Road and APMC Navi Mumbai on January 6 and protested as their interest had not been paid since the last week of December. A complaint was lodged at Shivaji Police Station on the same day. It is claimed that this amount is in thousands of crores. Apart from this, a case has also been registered in this regard at Navghar Police of Mira Bhayander, Rabodi Police of Thane and APMC Police Station of Navi Mumbai. ED will investigate all these cases simultaneously.
