Antwerp’s law enforcement authorities are investigating the fraud involving synthetic diamonds.
These lab-grown stones, according to the Belga News Agency, are a threat to the global diamond trade and, as a result, may result in lower interest on the part of potential buyers towards natural diamond jewelry.
According to the International Gemological Institute (IGI) in Antwerp, their employees while examining a batch of goods containing one thousand diamonds last October found about 600 synthetic stones. This lot was earmarked for sale under the guise of natural diamonds.
For its part, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) argues that there is no problem to identify synthetic diamonds. However, their similarity with natural stones was so high that diamantaires could not tell them apart, even using a magnifying glass or microscope.
The prosecutor's office in Antwerp, in turn, confirmed to journalists that it was currently looking into a fraud case involving synthetic diamonds trying to find out who their manufacturers were. According to unofficial information, the stones were probably grown in a U.S. laboratory. It remains a mystery how they turned up on the market.
The injection of synthetic diamonds was detected by chance. As a rule, diamantaires do not send gems weighing 0.30 carats to a laboratory for analysis, establishing their authenticity unassisted.
In the opinion of some observers, right now it is not known for sure how many synthetic diamonds are circulating in the global market under the guise of natural. The emergence of a commercial batch of undisclosed synthetic stones generated concern among the members of the diamond community in Antwerp.
Meanwhile, according to the AWDC, the fact that lab-made diamonds were identified in Antwerp proves that the industry control system is efficient. "But in order that buyers were convinced they had acquired natural diamonds, it is necessary that this was confirmed by a certificate", the AWDC spokesperson said.
All the stones checked by the IGI undergo a series of tests and in particular they are tested for nitrogen, which is contained in the atomic structure of the diamond. How difficult it is to distinguish natural diamonds from synthetic diamonds without advanced equipment says one of the IGI employees.
"Synthetic diamonds are real, but not natural. They consist of pure carbon and have the same cristallization structure as a natural diamond. This is a real diamond, but grown artificially," the expert said.
Although the production of synthetic diamonds is expensive, it is still less expensive than the extraction of natural stones.
The IGI, for its part, sent notifications to international gemological laboratories about the undisclosed synthetic diamonds detected in Antwerp.
In 2007, the Antwerp diamond community turned out to be in the media limelight in connection with the scandal involving the sale of conflict diamonds. The investigating authorities of Antwerp, which is called the "diamond capital of the world", revealed at the time that illegal trade in rough diamonds was underway in this city despite the AWDC’s assurances about a complete business transparency.
According to media reports, Peri Diamonds, the company, which was suspected of selling diamonds smuggled from Côte d'Ivoire to the tune of millions of euros, was trading in the so-called "blood diamonds."
At that time, the AWDC even invited Leonardo DiCaprio, the famous American actor, who starred in the film ‘Blood Diamond,’ to Antwerp to convince the world public opinion in the transparency of diamond business.
According to experts, rebels from Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are those who are also engaged in the trade in "blood diamonds," which, however, takes up only 1% of the total world trade in rough diamonds.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
