9 questions with the man cleaning up EGL

They came to me and they said, “Menahem, will you give us a way of organizing all these people under the same umbrella?” We were talking about it and suddenly in the last few months it became more and more urgent because all sorts of articles appeared that startled me, and also (Martin) Rapaport started quite a difficult crusade against EGL and everybody got very worried. 

So they (Margel’s heirs) came to me and (offered me the position) of the global manger of the labs. Put it right. Put it under control. Check the grading, check the system, see where the problem is, etc., etc. because they are not in the trade, the brand owners. They believe I have the integrity and the name to be able to do it. 

NJ: You’ve mentioned “the problem” a couple of times. But, you are not acknowledging that over-grading is the problem? 

MS: We were not so much aware because in our laboratory the EGL system that we have, we got from Guy Margel almost 40 years ago, together with the Americas, with EGL USA. We got from him the (color) master (sets). The masters was then based on the 0, 1, 2, the European system. It was a different one from the GIA. It was based on a different grade. When the GIA became more and more prominent with the D-F, Guy Margel moved into the D-F. 

EGL was always closer to the European, which is a little wider [more liberal] in the depiction of the color.

NJ: I don’t think anybody is really questioning whether you use D,E,F or 0, 1, 2. It’s not that one system is a little bit different than another, or that graders around the world might give the same diamonds slightly different grades. People’s real concern was that the grades being given were dramatically different. Do you agree with that? 

MS: That’s what I realize was happening when … people came to us with something and said, ‘EGL gave us six grades more, why are they giving us (this grade)?’ We were not aware that this was happening until we actually saw it in the newspaper. And then I got a bit worried, what’s happening? When they said five or six grades, that was a concern.

NJ: That’s why when Rapaport delisted EGL you stepped forward and said, my lab is different?  

MS: Yeah. But for me, for me my lab is not different. My lab is EGL. Those grades are not EGL. Those grades are abusing whatever system there is.  

To me, [there is no problem with] the real system of EGL that is used by honest people, like myself and my team here for 40 years, and people in the United States also--the team in the United States I think they are really honest people--I think the people in South Africa, Alan Lowe, is an excellent and an honest person. 

It’s only when this system is abused by whomever it is--whether it is by one gemologist or by a lab … anybody using any piece of paper that has five grades (off) is not using the EGL system. It’s using the name maybe to do something else but, to me, this is not an EGL certificate. That what I why when I took over I said to myself, I want to (determine) where the problem is, to see which laboratory is maybe problematic. I can see the grading systems. I can make sure that it’s OK and centralize the (operations). We have to reduce the number of laboratories and make sure that all of them are under strict control. 

That is why in Israel there’ll be only one lab, under one control--my control--under strict supervision. And any lab around the world that will obey the standards that we will impose, what’s SI3 exactly, what is that, to have a homogenous (operation). 

It’s going to be a difficult task because there was really no control and no laws in these laboratories that we could see. Any lab that will not obey, the brand owners will just close it according to my instructions. 

There’ll be one certificate, there’s be one center to check everything. 

It’ll take time to make it happen and it will take time to be correct even--where it needs to correct, I have to check that--but I think at the end of the process, which will take probably a few months, we are going to have a chain of labs that we are going to be proud about the way we were always proud with EGL. 

Rapaport has been listing EGL for the last 20 years or whatever and nobody ever complained. It’s only in the last few years, several things started happening, according to what I hear in the press in the States. 

NJ: What’s the current status of the EGL International lab? Is that facility going to be shut down completely? 

MS: This is in the hands of the (EGL) brand owners, whether they are going to dismantle it altogether or whether they are going to do a different thing under new supervision and leadership--whatever they decide.

The only thing I know for a fact is I will not let any EGL International certificates be issued on the market. There’ll be only one named certificate that’s EGL but we don’t exactly know which name we are going to use, maybe it’ll be EGL Platinum for the whole world.

There’ll be only one certificate that we can control. The same (as) GIA: there’s going to be one name under one control. Of course, according to the numbers we are going to know as a controlling center where this came from and where it was issued. 

NJ: When are these changes going to take effect; in other words, when are they going to stop printing any certificates that say EGL International?

MS: That is going to happen I believe very soon. I am talking within weeks. It’s like a train; even if you tell it to stop it takes a little bit of time. We will start controlling what’s happening. 

Very, very soon we will stop issuing the EGL International certificates, which from what I saw, is where (Rapaport) sees the main problem. The laboratories that will comply and stand according to our controlling system, we will let them issue the new certificates. If not, they will be kicked out of the EGL chain of laboratories. 

NJ: But, if they wanted to, they could call themselves something else and still grade diamonds.

MS: Of course; I cannot close a lab and tell them, “You’re dead.” I can just tell them you are no longer entitled to use the name EGL. This is a brand name. It represents a certain quality, which is suffering at the moment from problems because of things that are happening around the world.

NJ: Are you hopeful of getting back on RapNet after you make these changes?

MS: Yes. I know RapNet, I know Rapaport personally. I think that Rapaport will be convinced that Menahem Sevdermish really took it over and is really kosherizing all the grading system. He’ll be able to come and visit the laboratories and see that these are loyal gemologists, loyal to gemology and to EGL gemology. 

Yes it’s not GIA; it’s different. But as long as he will be comfortable with the fact that we know there are no problems and, when I say problems, Rapaport is not talking about the system of EGL. He is talking about the fact that there are problems there. He’s talking about, how can it be that an N suddenly got an F? 

I understand one, two grades (difference) can happen but this kind of difference is … abuse. We want to stop that and this is why I am coming in. I am coming in to do just that.