Swiss trader uses diamonds to launder mafia money

A Swiss precious metals and gems trader accused of knowingly buying diamonds worth $750,000 on behalf of Italian criminals to help them launder the proceeds of a $35 mn tax scam, stands trial on 27 May, as per a report in mining.com.
According to the report, Swiss federal prosecutors wrote in their January indictment that the trader knew or should have known that the money used to buy the stones was linked to Italian organized crime.
The trader reportedly bought the diamonds through an Israeli diamond exchange outside Tel Aviv to launder the Italians’ illicit gains. 
At the time of the diamond purchases, his three alleged Italian accomplices had already been convicted and sentenced to prison in 2011 for running a VAT tax-fraud scheme that issued fake tax receipts. The case sheds light on how criminals are turning to gems and bullion as tougher know-your-customer rules make Swiss banks wary of accepting large deliveries of cash.
While penalties under Swiss law are considered lenient by the standards of many other western countries, Switzerland has been toughening its stance on money laundering given the more than $2 trillion of offshore assets stashed there.
The accused sold 10 kilograms of gold without sufficient due diligence on the buyer and also helped a group of Italians transfer more than $1.1 mn from Swiss banks to a Hungarian bank without the requisite authority from Finma.
The trial is scheduled to open on 27 May and run for two days.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished