India sends extradition request for mastermind Olena Stoian in Torres Jewellery fraud

The Indian government has requested Moldova to extradite Ukrainian national Olena Stoian, one of the alleged masterminds of the ₹177-crore Torres Jewellery fraud, who was recently detained in the eastern European country. Authorities in Moldova, which borders Ukraine, detained Stoian last month under an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued in February at the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Once detained, the ED acted swiftly, submitting documents and evidence of the money-laundering case against Stoian to the central government to support the extradition request. The ED expects Moldova’s response to India’s extradition request within a week. The Interpol RCN against Stoian was based on a non-bailable warrant issued by a special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases in Mumbai on November 1, 2025. The warrant was issued after Stoian failed to appear before the court following the ED’s first charge sheet in May 2025, which named Stoian and 12 others as the accused.

The agency termed Stoian and fellow Ukrainian Oleksandr Zapichenko as the “architects” of the financial structuring and laundering operations of Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd, the holding company of the Torres Jewellery chain in India. Both fled the country a few days before the fraud came to light in early 2025. Apart from Stoian and Zapichenko, the ED charge sheet also named foreign nationals such as Victoria Kovalenko (Ukrainian) and Tazagul Khasatova (Uzbek), and Indian citizens such as Alpesh Khara, Sagar Mehta, Lallan Singh, Abhishek Gupta, and Tausif Reyaz, who was the CEO of Platinum Hern.