There have been many recent reports about the diamond industry and the theft that is happening around the globe in it. While diamond theft is not something that is new, the number of large-scale thefts, sometimes worth millions of dollars, has really caused a stir in the industry. There are many examples of this throughout the news pages, but what you will find most interesting is that the theft process is so seemingly easy to accomplish. Even unaccomplished thieves are stealing at record levels and there looks to be no sign of stopping in the future.
Theft of Millions
One example of this is in Israel. There, police arrested a man named Amos Suleimani, who is 62 years old. His crime was simple. He somehow was able to see half a million dollars worth of diamonds within his small plan. Of course, he is only under suspicion of committing the crime at this point.
According to police there, the man stole the diamonds from local diamantaires. He allegedly posed pretending to be a representative from a larger jewelry company contacting the local companies. He did this through email. In his comments, he requested that the local diamantaires would send the diamonds to prospective buyers for appraisal overseas. The diamonds had to travel with him, which would assure their safety, of course. Once he gave enough time, he contacted the diamantaires and let them know that the diamonds had gone missing during the transit to the appraisal. By doing this, he was able to defraud the diamanataires. He did not do this to just one company, either. Rather, he did it to several, each time making away with even more money.
The man came into custody when the Israeli Fraud Department received several complaints about him. While this man’s story seems to be unique, it really is not too unfamiliar. In fact, there have been other companies to report to companies around the world the same type of problem. Some diamond companies have gone so far as to issue warnings on a global scale of the number of imposters pretending to be officials.
This first example is by no means one that is unique. Just about the same time, there was a report issued about another theft. This time, the accused person was a 46-year-old man that worked as a diamond cutter. Police from Tel Aviv’s Fraud Unit arrested him just this week. His crime is seemingly simple, too. He was a suspect of masquerading as a representative of global diamond companies. He not only lied about who he was, but he used this information to steal the diamond stones. He got away with several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This man’s story may not be as clear-cut as others may, though. According to the lead police officer in the Fraud Unit, the unnamed as of yet suspected thief took part is an elaborate scam. The scam was able to successfully swindle diamond dealers from the Ramat Gan located Israel Diamond Exchange. There was to be an additional man arrested as part of the scheme as well.
The employees from the Diamond Exchange first tipped off the police back in January. The person who was doing the fraud approached the individuals and offered to send the diamonds in their possession to Italy for appraisal. The diamonds would have appraisal and examination there, which police added was a common practice. The problems, though, came when the diamonds never seemed to make it back from their trip. The suspect in the case kept making excuses on the delay in the return on the diamonds; including saying, they had simply become lost.
The suspect believes the he is the victim, not the problem, saying that those who took off with the stones too took him advantage of. The problem for this man, though, came when officials began looking for more information about his claims. The man made significant claims about who he was saying that he had key connections to some of the larger companies in the aura. The police found out that all of these claims were in fact not real.
As these stories attest, there is definitely a problem with those who trust these diamond brokers with their precious stones. In both cases, the thieves were able to play on emotions and trust to get the individuals to hand over the diamonds to them. This is what has caused so many of the thefts to happen as of late.
Officials throughout the industry warn that these problems should have careful monitoring and reported as quickly as possible so action can occur. With millions of dollars worth of diamonds at risk, there is no telling the importance of speed here.
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