niceice
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2003
- Messages
- 1,792
In the news:
De Beers, the global diamond group, will plead guilty to 10-year-old price-fixing charges, reports the New York Times and the Financial Times of London. Under an agreement reached with U.S. Department of Justice lawyers De Beers is expected to plead guilty and could pay a fine up to $10 million to settle charges that it conspired with General Electric to fix the prices of industrial diamonds, people familiar with the talks say. The case is scheduled to be heard on July 13 in federal district court in Columbus, OH. While U.S. officials cleared G.E. of the price-fixing charges, papers were never served on De Beers because it had no legal presence in the U.S.
Read the entire article courtesy of Professional Jeweler
Our thoughts: Does it really solve anything? No, we don''t think so... Within the past calendar year, the DTC has intentionally disrupted the business of at least 50 diamond cutters who held sight sale distribution agreements with DeBeers while simultaneously inreasing the price of diamond rough substantially and reducing the supply dramatically in a clear attempt to increase prices and it is a ploy which has worked. We and all other dealers are buying diamonds for prices substantially higher than we were selling them for a year ago and therefore the public is paying substantially higher prices than they were a year ago and there is no relief in sight. We had to laugh yesterday when a client called to ask where a particular diamond had gone that was listed on our inventory list and then vanished (that always cracks us up, that means it has been sold silly, but that''s another story) and he indicated that he was interested in the stone, but had been waiting to buy it for prices to go back down... Guess what folks, they generally don''t go back down once the DTC has imposed an increase, they just keep going up, up, up... Yes, there are other distribution companies that are supposed to be in competition with DeBeers... But they don''t seem to be in competiton as much as they seem to be in collusion, because every time the DTC raises their prices and cuts back on distribution, so do the other guys...
The DTC may be about to settle this particular case for what is essentially pocket change for these guys, but it is clearly apparent that they didn''t learn anything from the case, nor do we suppose that they would learn anything from future cases unless the penalties were exceptionally severe...
One NYC based diamond cutter has filed a substantial lawsuit against the DTC for intentional damage to their business, racketeering, etc. but that case is sure to be tied up by red tape for years and years... And hey, if the DTC has been able to avoid settling the aforementioned case with the Federal Government for the past decade or so, no doubt they''ll be able to avoid a private party for quite some time
De Beers, the global diamond group, will plead guilty to 10-year-old price-fixing charges, reports the New York Times and the Financial Times of London. Under an agreement reached with U.S. Department of Justice lawyers De Beers is expected to plead guilty and could pay a fine up to $10 million to settle charges that it conspired with General Electric to fix the prices of industrial diamonds, people familiar with the talks say. The case is scheduled to be heard on July 13 in federal district court in Columbus, OH. While U.S. officials cleared G.E. of the price-fixing charges, papers were never served on De Beers because it had no legal presence in the U.S.
Read the entire article courtesy of Professional Jeweler
Our thoughts: Does it really solve anything? No, we don''t think so... Within the past calendar year, the DTC has intentionally disrupted the business of at least 50 diamond cutters who held sight sale distribution agreements with DeBeers while simultaneously inreasing the price of diamond rough substantially and reducing the supply dramatically in a clear attempt to increase prices and it is a ploy which has worked. We and all other dealers are buying diamonds for prices substantially higher than we were selling them for a year ago and therefore the public is paying substantially higher prices than they were a year ago and there is no relief in sight. We had to laugh yesterday when a client called to ask where a particular diamond had gone that was listed on our inventory list and then vanished (that always cracks us up, that means it has been sold silly, but that''s another story) and he indicated that he was interested in the stone, but had been waiting to buy it for prices to go back down... Guess what folks, they generally don''t go back down once the DTC has imposed an increase, they just keep going up, up, up... Yes, there are other distribution companies that are supposed to be in competition with DeBeers... But they don''t seem to be in competiton as much as they seem to be in collusion, because every time the DTC raises their prices and cuts back on distribution, so do the other guys...
The DTC may be about to settle this particular case for what is essentially pocket change for these guys, but it is clearly apparent that they didn''t learn anything from the case, nor do we suppose that they would learn anything from future cases unless the penalties were exceptionally severe...
One NYC based diamond cutter has filed a substantial lawsuit against the DTC for intentional damage to their business, racketeering, etc. but that case is sure to be tied up by red tape for years and years... And hey, if the DTC has been able to avoid settling the aforementioned case with the Federal Government for the past decade or so, no doubt they''ll be able to avoid a private party for quite some time
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