The New York Police have arrested 12 Russian men on suspicion of defrauding merchants in New York, Las Vegas and Mumbai out of more than $9 million in diamonds, IDEX Online reports.
The men “wrote bad checks, forged documents and used other methods to convince wholesalers to give them diamonds on a promise to pay on delivery”, according to the report, accumulating $9 million in melee diamonds. The diamonds were then resold in the Diamond District in Manhattan.
Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said: “Centered in Manhattan’s diamond district, America’s busiest hub in the diamond trade, the defendants allegedly took advantage of an industry-wide system of credit and trust to obtain largely untraceable diamonds, and then, using various allegedly illegal schemes, refused to pay”.
