Ritika Janiya
Vashi Dominguez, a diamond dealer, built up one of the most talked-about jewelry brands domiciled in London and sporting a large contingent of rich investors. In an eventful turn of fate, his company, Vashi, collapsed overnight, leaving huge losses and a whole lot of questions unanswered. Investors who lost millions are waging their war in anger as Vashi himself seems to have vanished into thin air, adding further mystery to his fall.will be on forbes australia website not print magazine (you mentioned magazine, so just wanted to clarify)
Vashi Domínguez was once a celebrated name within London’s luxury jewelry market. With his charisma and promises, he managed to convince some of the UK’s wealthiest entrepreneurs to invest in his firm, Vashi. What seemed like the most glittering of success stories became nothing less than a nightmare—leaving investors with a million-dollar loss and no trace of the man they once trusted.
One of them was John Caudwell, the founder of Phones 4u and one of Britain’s richest men. His first inkling that all was not well came when he decided to test Vashi’s product quality by ordering a custom diamond ring. Much to his surprise, the ring was quite dully designed, and the customer service was very poor. For Caudwell, who had already invested £1 million in the company, this experience set off alarm bells.
The experience that really got Caudwell’s radar twitching was when he went to Vashi’s flagship store in Covent Garden. “I stood outside and counted the number of people going into the shop,” he said. “It just didn’t add up.” The firm was asking for another £2 million of his money, but he refused to hand any more over because he smelt a rat.
It wasn’t just the despair of Caudwell; Vashi had already been in a successful position to entice a number of high-profile investors onboard, including the founder of Charles Tyrwhitt shirts, Nick Wheeler. But with its crash now, their pain will be immense: over £170 million gone and too many questions still to be answered.
Vashi Domínguez founded his company with the promise of shaking up the very traditional industry of diamonds. His shops—the Covent Garden venue in particular—were also envisioned as more than mere selling outlets. They had to be an experience on their own right, wherein every client would have the ability to design his or her own pieces of jewelry with ethically sourced, recycled diamonds. The idea was putting high-quality, tailored jewelry within everybody’s reach. Now, however, with the company in liquidation, the stock of diamonds and jewelry that once had an estimated value of £157 million has vanished—as has Domínguez himself.
Born in Tenerife in 1978, Vashi’s rise to stardom almost seemed like a fairy tale. His early life was subsidized by his mother, an insurance broker who did quite well. Dropping out of law school, Vashi entered the business of diamonds, making his first million by finding and using opportunities that came his way in the market. He started off with Diamond Manufacturers and later turned it into the holding company for the Vashi brand.
Vashi’s brand became known to all, with press in the Financial Times, and he appeared on TV shows like This Morning. That flagship store in Covent Garden was supposed to be a crowning glory of sorts—something totally immersive and bespoke in terms of shopping experience.
But behind the façade of success, all was not well. For all its public prosperity, Vashi was forever scouting for more investment. He visited many wealthy people, including Michael Spencer, the billionaire founder of Icap, and Mahmud Kamani, founder of Boohoo. Some of the investors were even promised that if the company managed to crack the US market, then it could be bought by Richemont, which owns Cartier. It was another promise that came to naught.
One interesting fact about how opaque the company was added to the list of the most disturbing aspects of Vashi’s collapse. John Ames, who was brought in as chief technology officer in 2021, said there was no governance, no proper financial reporting. Ames met Vashi in his Covent Garden store and was initially impressed by his vision, but he soon realized the firm was not being run properly. “There was no governance, no board meetings or board packs produced, and really no easily accessible financial reporting,” said Ames.
As the business grew further, adding stores in some of London’s most upscale locations the need for funds escalated and Vashi went back to investors, time and again, without much by way of justifying why. Some, like Nick Wheeler at Charles Tyrwhitt decided to cut their losses and grew increasingly suspicious. Others were not so lucky.
Today, Vashi Dominguez and what happened to him, along with his firm, remain unknown. With millions of pounds not found and no sign of a man who promised much more, investors are now searching for answers. Some hired private investigators to track down Vashi; so far, all proved futile in their effort.
The Vashi debacle sent out a strong message about the perils that almost every investment that is pursued, once it sounds as successful on paper, really has within. The loss to those who believed in Vashi’s vision is financial and in broken trust that can never be resolved.
