Diamonds are Forever...

Imagine you’re employed by Harry Winston (a worldwide jewelry concern) in its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. You’ve just hiked five miles to get to work this morning because the Transit Union has gone on strike and just before the store opens news breaks that the GIA may be under investigation by the Federal Government for fraud. All those diamonds under the counter you were hoping to sell at the last minute between now and Saturday are suddenly looking like the lumps of coal they originally were.
The GIA (short for Gemological Institute for America) certifies the quality of approximately 98 % of the World’s diamonds owing to its monopoly in the gem lab business. All jewels are graded for carat, clarity, color and cut. Those things add up to the perceived value of gems being traded.
The scandal began when a Saudi family purchased two diamonds ... one a 103.78-carat pear-shaped pendant, and the other a 37-carat ring ... that were supposed to be "flawless," the top of the chart on the clarity scale, and were given a top-rated color "D." Both received an institute certificate guaranteeing their quality. Having paid a whopping $ 15 million for the gems the new owner took them to an independent appraiser who found them to be of inferior quality and worth much less than the purchase price. The Saudis then demanded their money back from the seller Max Pincione who used to be the manager of the diamond room at Harry Winston Fifth Avenue. Mr. Pincione then sued the GIA.
As a result of the raucous the GIA conducted an internal investigation looking at transactions going back as many as 10 years ago and found that a supervisor and four employees had been accepting bribes to inflate the grades of diamonds from "a small community of dealers." This was out of a total of approximately 200 employees at the GIA’ s Manhattan lab. The employees were fired, and the results of the investigation have been turned over to prosecutors and a public announcement was made today.
Do you think Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa is getting her $ 7 million ring reappraised tomorrow. Probably… and our hypothetical Harry Winston employee is looking for a friend who drives to work…