Dealer “Switched $460,000 Natural Diamonds for Lab Growns”

(IDEX Online) – A New York diamond dealer has been charged with defrauding two sellers by switching natural stones worth $460,000 with lab grown replicas.

Manashe Sezanayev, 41, owner of Rachel’s Diamonds, in Manhattan’s Diamond District, was sentenced to a year in prison in 2018  after he admitted, with others, defrauding diamond wholesalers out of $9m.

According to recent court documents, Sezanayev claimed he was interested in buying two diamonds – valued at  $185,000 and $75,000 – from a merchant who visited his premises in February.

He allegedly turned his back to weigh the diamonds on his scale and swapped them for lab grown that had been recut to imitate the natural stones and inscribed with forged GIA laser inscriptions.

In March he is alleged to have told another merchant he had a customer interested in buying a $200,000 diamond.  He allegedly bought a replica stone, again with a fake GIA inscription, and went on switch it for the mined diamond.

“Diamonds are forever, but this alleged scheme was short-lived,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “As alleged, Manashe Sezanayev took advantage of diamond merchants by stealing their diamonds and replacing them with fake stones.

“Merchants are expected to conduct business in a fair and honest manner. Those who take advantage of consumers will be held accountable.”

Sezanayev is charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with two counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree, and three counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the third degree.

His attorney, Boris Nektalov, told the Associated Press: “My client is presumed innocent and he’s going to wait for his day in court.”