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 well aware, earlier this spring, hundreds of synthetic diamonds were submitted to the International Gemological Institute in Antwerp without proper disclosure. The stones had been treated in such a way as to pass for natural diamonds.

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