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Judge Approves Sale of A. Jaffe to Paramount Jewels
Paramount paid $5.2 million for the diamond jewelry company’s name, intellectual property, design patents, accounts receivable and some inventory.
New York—A federal bankruptcy judge gave the OK Wednesday for Paramount Jewels to buy A. Jaffe, the latter’s CEO Sumay Bhansali confirmed to National Jeweler.
Following the sale, the New York-based diamond jewelry company will operate as its own entity, independent of Paramount Jewels.
Bhansali will stay on board as CEO, with Sam Sandberg as chairman, and the company will retain its employees.
Paramount Jewels is a subsidiary of Parag Diamonds (d/b/a Paramount Gems), the company that won the first auction of A. Jaffe’s assets held in May, agreeing to pay $8 million for the diamond jewelry brand. That sale was halted by the judge and ultimately withdrawn.
This time around, Paramount Jewels bid $5.2 million for A. Jaffe’s name, intellectual property, design patents, accounts receivable and a portion of its inventory, with an additional $1.2 million in inventory sold off separately to Jewelex Diamonds, GBC, Diamonds International and Amipi Inc.
Additional non-core assets of A. Jaffe are set to be sold at a later date.
A. Jaffe was one of three U.S.-based companies that were part of the empire of Nirav Modi, the billionaire diamantaire wanted for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank out of nearly $2 billion.
The companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year in order to distance themselves from Modi and because their source of supply—Modi’s factories in India—shut down in the wake of the scandal.
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