The mystery of the ‘vanishing’ diamond dealer: fury in the City after multimillion collapse of Vashi

Vashi Domínguez: a hard man to track down these days. Composite: Getty, Shutterstock, Observer Design

For John Caudwell, the giveaway was the bespoke diamond ring. One of Britain’s wealthiest men had decided to put his investment in a diamond retailer called Vashi to the test with some mystery shopping.

“I asked them to design a ring for me. It was terrible,” says the founder of Phones 4u. “They claimed to be experts in design but the customer service was poor – it was slow, not effective and not a good design.”