A handsome Indian man plans a marriage proposal, a fancy restaurant, a band... Everything.
As soon as his girlfriend appeared, she frantically complained about her boss, colleagues, and friends, saying that she didn't know how to refuse and cleaned up the mess every day. "I've said enough Yes, and from today onwards, I'm going to say No."
Overcoming the embarrassment, the man opened the small red box hidden in the palm of his hand: "How about saying Yes again?" The music played, the two embraced romantically, and a jewelry brand appeared:
Say Yes，forever.
Nirav Modi
The heroine of the advertisement is the big star Chopra, known as the "National Treasure of India".
"National Treasure of India" Chopra starred in a Nirav Modi diamond ring commercial
Nirav Modi, an Indian fine jewelry brand named after its founder, was once thought to be able to get out of India, but it suddenly fell. Founder Modi fell from Indian high society to Interpol Red Notice.
Suspected of huge financial fraud, Modi was arrested in London in March 2019. In the past four years, Modi, the Indian government and the British court have engaged in a multi-round tug-of-war.
Modi, who fled to the UK, is in a state of embarrassment
The Indian government asked for Modi's extradition to stand trial, and Modi appealed several times on the grounds that "a fair trial in India cannot be obtained." At the end of 2022, the drama finally drew to a close when the UK Supreme Court rejected Modi's application.
In the commercial, the girlfriend complains that her colleague borrowed money and disappeared, and according to the information released so far, Modi may be cheating money like this, and God played a black humor.
01
-
Modi was born in India in 1971 to a family of diamond merchants and joined his uncle's company at the age of 19. He was a literary young man who had read the English version of the Analects and loved Alexandre Dumas's "The Man in the Iron Mask" and David Ogilvy's "Confessions of an Advertising Man".
After accumulating nearly 10 years of industry experience, Modi decided to set up his own diamond processing factory. His adventurous gambler personality began to show, not only buying up his most important U.S. customers in a "snake-swallowing" manner, but also taking advantage of the 2008 financial crisis to buy large inventories of diamonds at low prices.
Diamond processing is a labor-intensive industry, and jewelry retail, which accounts for the bulk of profits, is Modi's interest. In 2010, he followed the example of idol Harry Winston and registered the brand under his full name, Nirav Modi.
Modi has a collection of luxury jewelry, watches, and cars, creating an image of spending money
He is ambitious: "If we buy German cars, Swiss watches, French handbags and Italian fashion, why can't we buy Indian jewelry?" ”
Before the East Window incident, Modi was believed to have created a sample of an "independent jewelry brand breaking into the world".
Modi wants the brand to make a splash as soon as it debuts, and an auction house that gathers big collectors is clearly the best choice. In the same year that the brand was founded, Nirav Modi featured a lavish lotus necklace on the cover of Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction Catalogue.
In the year the brand was founded, Christie's sold a high-priced lotus necklace
The necklace features a 12.29 carat flawless Golconda diamond and 34 pink diamonds from the Argyle mine in Australia. The transaction price was nearly 30 million Hong Kong dollars, which was won by a Taiwanese entrepreneur.
Before the iconic design is put on the market, Modi always takes it to the auction house to plate gold. In 2011, Sotheby's New York brought together Embrace bracelets and Endless Cut diamond earrings that later became "hits".
The Embrace bracelet is said to have been inspired by an elastic bracelet that Modi's daughter played, creating a mechanism that allows the gemstone to stretch in a soft, interlocking manner.
Embrace bracelets have fantastic stretchability
Modi was good at climbing, and at Wharton, he met his wife Ami, who was born in the upper class of the United States, and broke into the upper social circle of Bollywood and India.
Since 2015, Modi has begun to lay out physical stores on a large scale. Hong Kong 1881 Heritage, The Peninsula Beijing, Madison Avenue New York... He only needs the most central location of the world's most central cities.
During that time, Modi was surrounded by various female stars in evening dresses and pearlescents, Naomi Watts and Trump's son attended the opening ceremony of the New York store, and the Hong Kong store invited Zhang Ziyi and Rain.
Zhang Ziyi attended the opening of Nirav Modi's Hong Kong store
That night, Zhang Ziyi couldn't hide her excitement and posted on Weibo: "If you sleep like this, it is estimated that you will be robbed in your dreams."
Nirav Modi has frequently appeared at the most authoritative industry events such as Paris Haute Couture Week and the Biennale des Antiquaires; Victoria's Secret supermodel Rosie Huntington as a spokesperson; The most amazing action in the Chinese market may be the wedding ring that once witnessed the love of Li Chen and Fan Bingbing.
In the years of proudness, Modi expressed to the US financial media CNBC the expansion plan of 100 stores in 10 years, and Fortune magazine has even begun to compare him to Graff: they have both dropped out of school and worked at the bottom of the industry for many years, but "Graff worked hard for decades to secure the diamond king, and Modi has everything at the age of 44." ”
Decades versus "less than a decade", that's exactly the weirdness.
02
-
Modi's big hand surprised people in the industry. Where did the jeweler, who was once ranked 85th on the Forbes list of India's richest people, get his first pot of gold?
In February 2018, an indictment by India's PNB Bank unraveled the mystery. Modi became the mastermind of one of the largest financial frauds in Indian history, amounting exactly like Forbes' estimated net worth: $1.8 billion.
Modi obtains operating loans through a similar "internal guarantee and external loan" method.
To put it simply, when you pledge certain assets to a bank in India, you are given a document called a "letter of guarantee", through which you can obtain credit from branches of Indian banks abroad.
And Modi bribed two bank employees and got a letter of guarantee without any collateral, which is a real white wolf with empty gloves.
Perhaps Modi had intended to borrow the new to pay off the old, but the retirement of the bribed bank manager toppled the dominoes. When applying for a new guarantee letter, the new banker asked for collateral, which was complained by Modi's agent. The truth emerged.
Nirav Modi is on the verge of becoming a proud fine jewelry brand for India
Before the police intervened, Modi had fled overseas. He denied all the allegations, claiming that "the seizure of assets triggered by false allegations" really jeopardized the company's ability to repay its debts. In addition to the Indian government, police in New York, Los Angeles and even the FBI are looking for him.
It was not these national machines that finally found Modi, but several reporters from the British Telegraph newspaper.
They received a tip-off that Modi, who is wanted worldwide, was enjoying a hidden life in a £8 million apartment in London at this time.
He came to the UK early on on an entrepreneur visa, also known as political asylum, not only with a local social security number and bank account, registering a new company, but also maintaining close ties with British wealth managers that serve wealthy foreigners.
Modi tried early on to try to enter British high society
One afternoon in March 2019, reporters intercepted Modi downstairs in London's office. At that time, he was shocked, faced with a series of questions, just kept saying No Comment, and tried to take a taxi to leave, but was unsuccessful.
The British government quickly arrested Modi. By now, his family had been scattered all over the world.
The wife returned to Manhattan with her children to settle down; The younger sister set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and helped Modi transfer some of his assets; The brother was charged by New York police with major theft.
His uncle was suspended from sightseeing by De Beers because of his involvement in the Modi case, and he hid in the Caribbean and was later arrested in Dominica.
Seeing him rise tall, seeing his building collapse.
His Jaeger-LeCoultre Spherical Tourbillon watches, Hermès handbags and Rolls-Royce Phantoms were seized and auctioned by the Indian Revenue Department. U.S. companies acquired in the early years have filed for bankruptcy protection and have now been taken over by new investors.
Modi's various collections were auctioned
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also innocently implicated. Because of the same surname and a group photo at the Davos Economic Forum, there was speculation that the two were related or nepotistic, all of which were denied.
However, the most serious impact has been more serious than the damage to the confidence of financial institutions in India's jewelry industry. Banks began to carry out extremely strict loan control, and the mortgage ratio was greatly increased from the original 10%-15% to 40%-50%.
Farberge's parent company, colored gemstone giant Gemfields, also hit sales in India. The Indian Gemstone Export Promotion Association can't help but appeal to the government to give more "care" to the industry, which contributes 7% of the country's GDP.
03
-
At the beginning of the 20th century, India's jewelry culture inspired Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. In recent years, Indian jewelers are no longer satisfied with making wedding dresses for others and have begun to "make brands".
Apart from the troubled Nirav Modi, what other jewellery brands in India have become internationally known and continue to operate? We selected three of them, and although none of them have yet entered China, they can be said to be representative of three market segments.
The first is Tanishq, which is listed by Deloitte as one of the 20 fastest-growing luxury brands. Behind it is Indian business giant Tata Group, which spans industries such as communications, energy and consumption, and is also the parent company of luxury car brand Land Rover.
Tanishq, a division of the Tata Group
Tanishq has a very strong supply chain and sales network, and Meitu recently developed a filter for it that provides highly fitting AR virtual try-on technology.
Taking the route of a personalized boutique is Amrapali, founded in the 1970s. The brand takes its name from the designer's muse, a legendary prostitute from ancient India. She was peerless and caused numerous court disputes.
Amrapali named after the legendary beauty
The official website of the Amrapali brand has a wall of photos of Hollywood stars wearing their jewelry. Penelope Cruz, Zendaya and Liu Yuling are all listed. Amrapali chose only luxury platforms as partners, such as Harrods in London, Selfridge's and Net-a-Porter.
Viren Bhagat, the last to appear, is a representative of Indian fine jewelry. Rahul Kadakia, Chairman of Christie's US Jewellery, commented: "Bhagat's work does not need to be signed, every corner and every line screams his name. ”
Bhagat in a strong style
Before becoming famous, Bhagat and Bulgari had a relationship. In the 1970s, when the latter had not yet been acquired by LVMH, Gianni Bvlgari, the head of the company, asked him to interview for a design position.
Gianni admires Bhagat's talent, but says he'll steal from Bulgari and set up his own. In the end, he was not given the job on the grounds that "you can shine anywhere".
Bhagat founder Viren Bhagat
Today's Bhagat is a testament to Gianna's forward-looking. The creative dictator, who never appeared in public or accepted any changes from clients, was often seen by critics as a competitor to JAR, today's most talented jewelry designer.
He responded: "Some people say I'm an Indian JAR, but why not say he's the American Bhagat?" ”
Indian bridal wedding jewelry by Bhagat
These three are already famous, but far less powerful than Nirav Modi's movements, and they are not international brands.
04
-
Netflix's 2021 documentary Bad Boy Billionaires interviewed many people who worked with Modi and are still grateful to Modi.
Modi is one of the "Four Evil Men of India" featured in the Netflix documentary
Because of Modi's existence, employees have a "working environment that far exceeds the industry average"; Former partner Jeff Kantra's life's work has frequently appeared on the red carpet; Fashion magazines were able to receive high sponsorship to host the most eye-catching parties; His aesthetic taste has also been highly praised by photographers: "Modi's advertising not only has an Indian style, but also resonates deeply with all women around the world".
This thoughtful and respectful fantasy is based on an alleged fraud of $1.8 billion. The rise and fall of Nirav Modi, a jewelry brand, fully demonstrates the complexity of human nature.
Nirav Modi's stores are as ornate as the top jewelry brands
Before the East Window incident, Modi looked quite entrepreneurial. He said he wanted to win international attention with Indian style and create "Indian luxury".
Modi also has good congenital conditions. The port city of Surat, Gujarat, India, is known as the "City of Diamonds", where 90% of the world's rough diamonds are polished, cut, processed and exported around the world.
90% of the world's rough diamonds are processed in India
India has the legendary diamond source of Golconda, the unique Mughal design style has influenced many Western brands such as Cartier, and the Modi family has been involved in the diamond business since his grandfather's generation.
After World War II, India became an independent country, with economic growth and good cultural soft power, which was the soil for nurturing brands. By integrating resources to create a luxury jewelry brand, the logic is reasonable. But Modi's attempt to accomplish in a few years what European brands can achieve in decades or even centuries must be strange.
Loopholes and corruption in India's government and financial system gave Modi the opportunity to dig up the hole to $1.8 billion.
At the end of Modi's favorite English poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," poet Robert Frost writes:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
It no longer matters whether the feelings come from the heart or Modi's carefully woven illusion. Based on the current situation, he is likely to return to India for trial.
Chopra, the Indian actress in the commercial at the beginning of this article, has handed over jewelry she bought from Modi to the police as evidence against Modi.
Modi's collapse shocked the Indian and international jewelry industries
Creating a luxury brand requires an upper-class clientele, money and time. For a country to give birth to a luxury brand, it may also need a healthy political and business environment - the government supports the operation of enterprises, and financial institutions transport funds in a safe and reasonable way.
This immediately reminds us of today's Chinese business world, where some Chinese brands stand out from the deep manufacturing base in China, constantly digging nutrients from Eastern culture, and striving to build Chinese high-end brands and even luxury brands.
Chinese entrepreneurs with luxury dreams, read Modi's story, I don't know how to feel?