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EditorsJun 19, 2012
A little less conversation, please
Last night, the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America (DMIA) held a meeting in New York City covering what is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about topics among diamantaires today: synthetics. As I am sure many of you are...
Last night, the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America (DMIA) held a meeting in New York City covering what is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about topics among diamantaires today: synthetics.
While Monday night’s meeting began with what was a very interesting presentation by the Gemological Institute of America’s Tom Moses and Wuyi Wang, it ended with a question that I personally find even more interesting: What is going to happen to the company--a New York-based diamond company with ties to India--that allegedly submitted these stones to the grading lab in Belgium?
Will they be banned from the world’s diamond bourses or blacklisted in the industry in some other manner? Are criminal charges forthcoming in the case from law enforcement agencies in New York or Antwerp?
So far, the answers are unclear.
DMIA President Ronald Friedman said that here in New York, the DMIA will be “convening a meeting of interested parties,” including law enforcement -- which already has been contacted in the matter -- various industry bodies and the banks.
No date has been set but this meeting will take place “in the short term," he said.
Friedman added, though, that contacting law enforcement is not the only solution in this case. He said all industry players need to get involved, from manufacturers to banks to shippers to grading laboratories, and there needs to be a concerted effort to punish those involved, not just here but overseas as well.
“I see a softness internationally that’s very frustrating, and I see a lack of leadership internationally that’s very frustrating,” Friedman said.
It is my understanding that the federal police in Antwerp are looking into the matter. Friedman said there has been communication between Belgian authorities and those here in the United States, though it is not entirely clear at this point where exactly the fraud took place and, therefore, which law enforcement agency would have jurisdiction in the case.
I also was told by a separate source that India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) called the owner of the offending company into their offices to question him about what happened, and
he claimed to no longer be affiliated with the New York office that submitted the goods, a claim he has made previously. (A subscription is required to read this article.)
When I emailed the GJEPC to ask them about this meeting, I received no response.
Here in New York, the Diamond Dealers Club of New York has ignored numerous calls and emails from National Jeweler, though club President Reuven Kaufman did tell IDEX Online’s Edahn Golan that the DDC was “distressed” -- “profoundly,” nonetheless -- by the incident. It called for those involved to be “severely punished” by the bourses.
As Golan wisely points out in the fourth paragraph, as well as in this column, the DDC is not the first organization to release a statement calling for something to be done and, yet, not much has. Chaim Even-Zohar, the longtime industry journalist who broke the undisclosed synthetics story, issued a similar call in this recent subscription-required editorial.
In the wake of the scandal, the DMIA was among those organizations quick to shoot out a call-to-action news release. “It is unacceptable for industry organizations to sit idly by and pay mere lip service to problems and threats as they come to our industry, and industry leaders must be proactive and fearless in fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities,” the DMIA said. “The commitment to criminal prosecution is mandatory in stopping this abhorrent behavior.”
Now it's time to see if the industry can put its words into action, both here and overseas.
When I emailed the GJEPC to ask them about this meeting, I received no response.
Here in New York, the Diamond Dealers Club of New York has ignored numerous calls and emails from National Jeweler, though club President Reuven Kaufman did tell IDEX Online’s Edahn Golan that the DDC was “distressed” -- “profoundly,” nonetheless -- by the incident. It called for those involved to be “severely punished” by the bourses.
As Golan wisely points out in the fourth paragraph, as well as in this column, the DDC is not the first organization to release a statement calling for something to be done and, yet, not much has. Chaim Even-Zohar, the longtime industry journalist who broke the undisclosed synthetics story, issued a similar call in this recent subscription-required editorial.
In the wake of the scandal, the DMIA was among those organizations quick to shoot out a call-to-action news release. “It is unacceptable for industry organizations to sit idly by and pay mere lip service to problems and threats as they come to our industry, and industry leaders must be proactive and fearless in fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities,” the DMIA said. “The commitment to criminal prosecution is mandatory in stopping this abhorrent behavior.”
Now it's time to see if the industry can put its words into action, both here and overseas.
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