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New jewelry / true crime documentary on Netflix if anyone is interested

Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
2,914
It's actually not exactly new (few months old) but I only discovered it today. It's called 'Bad Boy Billionaires' and its actually a docu-series following different scandals and scams run by Indian billionaires, one of them is on Nirav Modi (a jeweler who ran his own eponymous brand) - episode is called Diamonds Aren't Forever. I wont give away the "details" (though its a matter of public record) but it was one of the biggest financial scams by an Indian businessperson, ever. Its a netflix production so it should be available mostly everywhere I would think.

I was interested in his story when I first heard about him, very shortly after he 'came on to the scene' in the Indian context and a lot of locals were talking about him. He basically tried to become the first Indian true luxury jewelry brand. I will say that this much is very true that the concept of a luxury jewelry brand or designer is/was pretty much non existent in India. I mean, its changing more now with highly revered fashion designers entering the jewelry game, but still, the kind of thing Nirav Modi tried to do was unique in India and honestly could've been what first spelled trouble for him (for example, most of these design bigwigs are still focusing on the traditional/bridal market, very few in the western-style high jewelry segment. With a few notable exceptions, even if these 'brands' charge more for labor, the difference is nothing like how it is in the US - e.g. compare the prices of a Tiffany setting to an equally competent artisan, and Tiffany's labor charge is probably 3-4x or more, this is not how it is in India for the most part). But also - I had my doubts even back then when he was at his peak about the sustainability of his plans in India - the acceptability of high labor charges is much lower there. I know quite a few women who have breathtaking jewelry collections and could definitely afford to pay his prices (yes, anecdote and not data to follow but still interesting) and we spoke about this back then and they all said the same thing - overpriced from an Indian context. There was precious little amongst his collection that a really good local jeweler in your big Indian cities couldn't make (maybe one or two designs). I'm not going to say that Indians aren't brand conscious, because they obviously can be and conspicuous consumption is very much a part of the culture. But in my opinion his jewelry wasn't recognizable enough, not like the Cartier Love or a Birkin handbag. There were obviously people who bought his stuff, but not regularly. Again, conspicuous consumption comes into play - if you could afford one of his everyday fine jewelry bracelets, you would probably buy a Cartier Love instead because most people recognized the latter and the price range was similar. (Just generalizing here for sake of conversation). I'm not going to spoil the details of all his activities so that the documentary is still interesting, but it basically sparkled a tangential train of thought in me which I thought you all might enjoy.

So all in all - defintely worth a watch, also because they do show pics/vids of some of the pretty baubles and some are really breathtaking! :D
 

Diamond Girl 21

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Jun 26, 2017
Messages
2,206
It's actually not exactly new (few months old) but I only discovered it today. It's called 'Bad Boy Billionaires' and its actually a docu-series following different scandals and scams run by Indian billionaires, one of them is on Nirav Modi (a jeweler who ran his own eponymous brand) - episode is called Diamonds Aren't Forever. I wont give away the "details" (though its a matter of public record) but it was one of the biggest financial scams by an Indian businessperson, ever. Its a netflix production so it should be available mostly everywhere I would think.

I was interested in his story when I first heard about him, very shortly after he 'came on to the scene' in the Indian context and a lot of locals were talking about him. He basically tried to become the first Indian true luxury jewelry brand. I will say that this much is very true that the concept of a luxury jewelry brand or designer is/was pretty much non existent in India. I mean, its changing more now with highly revered fashion designers entering the jewelry game, but still, the kind of thing Nirav Modi tried to do was unique in India and honestly could've been what first spelled trouble for him (for example, most of these design bigwigs are still focusing on the traditional/bridal market, very few in the western-style high jewelry segment. With a few notable exceptions, even if these 'brands' charge more for labor, the difference is nothing like how it is in the US - e.g. compare the prices of a Tiffany setting to an equally competent artisan, and Tiffany's labor charge is probably 3-4x or more, this is not how it is in India for the most part). But also - I had my doubts even back then when he was at his peak about the sustainability of his plans in India - the acceptability of high labor charges is much lower there. I know quite a few women who have breathtaking jewelry collections and could definitely afford to pay his prices (yes, anecdote and not data to follow but still interesting) and we spoke about this back then and they all said the same thing - overpriced from an Indian context. There was precious little amongst his collection that a really good local jeweler in your big Indian cities couldn't make (maybe one or two designs). I'm not going to say that Indians aren't brand conscious, because they obviously can be and conspicuous consumption is very much a part of the culture. But in my opinion his jewelry wasn't recognizable enough, not like the Cartier Love or a Birkin handbag. There were obviously people who bought his stuff, but not regularly. Again, conspicuous consumption comes into play - if you could afford one of his everyday fine jewelry bracelets, you would probably buy a Cartier Love instead because most people recognized the latter and the price range was similar. (Just generalizing here for sake of conversation). I'm not going to spoil the details of all his activities so that the documentary is still interesting, but it basically sparkled a tangential train of thought in me which I thought you all might enjoy.

So all in all - defintely worth a watch, also because they do show pics/vids of some of the pretty baubles and some are really breathtaking! :D

Thanks for sharing.
 

HollyC

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
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I watched it last week and enjoyed the series.
 

LLJsmom

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
12,633
Thanks for sharing. Just saw this last night. Interesting. Was all of this one big sting to steal from the bank? I think I fell asleep for the last 10 min.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
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Thanks for sharing. Just saw this last night. Interesting. Was all of this one big sting to steal from the bank? I think I fell asleep for the last 10 min.

So my understanding is that no, not really, he did actually start this jewelry brand etc and it wasn’t outright fraudulent in one sense (they actually were selling real precious metals and stones), but that he bribed a few officials from this one state-owned (important, because it means he stole from indian taxpayers) bank to get non-collateralised loans to the tune of a couple billion dollars into his parent company, and then used a bunch of shell companies and other financial/legal chicanery to embezzle some of the funds from his parent company into his personal accounts. A chunk of that $2bn also went towards his grandiose expansion plans to further his aim of being “the next Tiffany’s / Harry Winston” but those expansion plans were not based in reality (he overestimated the kind of sales he would get in India for example, by not accounting for how differently the market works there). So he didn’t set up this huge scam just to steal money from the banks like a simple conman, he set up a legitimate business, stole from banks to expand his business empire, and also stole from his business empire to fill his personal coffers and have an escape plan in case he was found out.
 

kol909

Rough_Rock
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Joined
Nov 12, 2021
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It's actually not exactly new (few months old) but I only discovered it today. It's called 'Bad Boy Billionaires' and its actually a docu-series following different scandals and scams run by Indian billionaires, one of them is on Nirav Modi (a jeweler who ran his own eponymous brand) - episode is called Diamonds Aren't Forever. I wont give away the "details" (though its a matter of public record) but it was one of the biggest financial scams by an Indian businessperson, ever. Its a netflix production so it should be available mostly everywhere I would think.

I was interested in his story when I first heard about him, very shortly after he 'came on to the scene' in the Indian context and a lot of locals were talking about him. He basically tried to become the first Indian true luxury jewelry brand. I will say that this much is very true that the concept of a luxury jewelry brand or designer is/was pretty much non existent in India. I mean, its changing more now with highly revered fashion designers entering the jewelry game, but still, the kind of thing Nirav Modi tried to do was unique in India and honestly could've been what first spelled trouble for him (for example, most of these design bigwigs are still focusing on the traditional/bridal market, very few in the western-style high jewelry segment. With a few notable exceptions, even if these 'brands' charge more for labor, the difference is nothing like how it is in the US - e.g. compare the prices of a Tiffany setting to an equally competent artisan, and Tiffany's labor charge is probably 3-4x or more, this is not how it is in India for the most part). But also - I had my doubts even back then when he was at his peak about the sustainability of his plans in India - the acceptability of high labor charges is much lower there. I know quite a few women who have breathtaking jewelry collections and could definitely afford to pay his prices (yes, anecdote and not data to follow but still interesting) and we spoke about this back then and they all said the same thing - overpriced from an Indian context. There was precious little amongst his collection that a really good local jeweler in your big Indian cities couldn't make (maybe one or two designs). I'm not going to say that Indians aren't brand conscious, because they obviously can be and conspicuous consumption is very much a part of the culture. But in my opinion his jewelry wasn't recognizable enough, not like the Cartier Love or a Birkin handbag. There were obviously people who bought his stuff, but not regularly. Again, conspicuous consumption comes into play - if you could afford one of his everyday fine jewelry bracelets, you would probably buy a Cartier Love instead because most people recognized the latter and the price range was similar. (Just generalizing here for sake of conversation). I'm not going to spoil the details of all his activities so that the documentary is still interesting, but it basically sparkled a tangential train of thought in me which I thought you all might enjoy. GBWhatsApp

So all in all - defintely worth a watch, also because they do show pics/vids of some of the pretty baubles and some are really breathtaking! :D

I think its good..hope so...cheers..!
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
4,017
And I always fall for it too... in the last week, I've excitedly posted to 3 threads that were several years old because they were bumped by bots. lol I was just about to post here, "true crime + jewelry = I'm in!" Day late and a dollar short, as usual!!
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
2,914
And I always fall for it too... in the last week, I've excitedly posted to 3 threads that were several years old because they were bumped by bots. lol I was just about to post here, "true crime + jewelry = I'm in!" Day late and a dollar short, as usual!!

It’s still a great documentary, if it’s available on Netflix! I haven’t checked :D
 
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