Nirav Deepak Modi (born 27 February 1971) is a fugitive Indian businessman, wanted by the Interpol for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property, corruption, money laundering, fraud, embezzlement and breach of contract since August 2018.
Modi made international headlines again in early October 2018 when Los Angeles entrepreneur, Paul Alfonso, filed a US$4.2 million lawsuit in Los Angeles against Modi and two of his now defunct companies namely Firestar Diamond Inc.
and A.
Jaffe Inc.
According to court records from the Superior Court of California, Modi fraudulently sold two custom diamond engagement rings to Alfonso that turned out to be lab diamonds.
The value of both diamond rings were US$200,000.
Modi's younger brother Neeshal Deepak Modi and manager and close aide Parab Subhash Shankhar are also wanted by Interpol since August 2018 in connection with the same crimes as Nirav Modi.Modi is being investigated in a $2 billion fraud case of Punjab National Bank (PNB) and is also being sued in the State of California for US$4.2 million for defrauding Los Angeles entrepreneur, Paul Alfonso, over two custom diamond engagement rings that turned out to be lab diamonds.
In March 2018, Modi applied for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan, New York.
In June 2018, Modi was reported to be in the UK and has applied for political asylum in Britain.
He is now under arrest in the UK.
In June 2019, Swiss authorities have frozen a total of 6 million US dollars present in Nirav Modi's Swiss bank accounts along with the assets.