Tale of a stolen pear in the NYT

[MarionC]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/nyregion/hot-ice-the-tortuous-tale-of-the-pear-shaped-diamond.html?src=rechp

 

[ckrickett]

What a story!

 

[kenny]

Strange story, indeed.

I thought pawn shops were prosecuted if they take in stolen merchandise.
I think they have to report serial numbers and descriptions of high-value items to the police.

I could certainly be wrong, or perhaps laws vary by state.

 

[AprilBaby]

What a nightmare! I would be pi**** if I paid $175,000 and had to give up the stone!

 

[Rhea]

That's crazy. Surely the original jeweller claimed it on her insurance and after 9 years has just accepted the loss. The family, until now, after it's been theirs for a decade, had no idea that it was stolen. There's no way they could have known. How scary! I'd hate to send a diamond to GIA just to have them hold on it as stolen goods! This is a no win situation and I feel bad for both the jeweller and the family. Lesson learned, never send a large diamond to GIA. They may keep it.

 

[MarionC]

and on a much smaller note, never take $100 bills to a bank
I tried to make a deposit using 100 bills. The teller said the bills were counterfeit and confiscated them. I told them to just give me my money back, but they said I was out of luck.
Turns out the young ladies had never seen a bill that did not say "in God We Trust" [which was added in the 60's]
I got my money back, but it shocked me that they could just say -no you can't have these back- you lose.

 

[luv2sparkle]

Wow! I would be so mad too! As was previously said, I'm sure the person who lost it was compensated by insurance.

 

[MollyMalone]

I'm not so convinced that William Goldberg Diamond Corp.'s insurance would have covered this situation. Can't conclusively say without seeing the terms of the policy they held at the time, but take a look at the outline of Jewelers Mutual's current policies for those in the trade & you'll see that Derek Khan waltzing off with a diamond you freely loaned him doesn't fall into any of the categories of coverage:
http://www.jewelersmutual.com/Busin...rance-Coverages/Commercial-insurance-products

Strange story, indeed.
I thought pawn shops were prosecuted if they take in stolen merchandise.
I think they have to report serial numbers and descriptions of high-value items to the police.
I could certainly be wrong, or perhaps laws vary by state.

Kenny, I have my doubts that Khan actually left this pear diamond with a true pawnbroker as collateral for a $40,000 loan. NY laws prohibit a pawnbroker from selling off a customer's hocked goods before 4 months have passed (and that was the time limit 10+ years ago). What genuine pawnbroker would dare to sell off a hocked rock of this caliber within mere days; you'd be on the hook big time for that breach.

So I suspect that it was actually a straight sales transaction to someone who, so far as I know, as never been identified. The stones & jewelry belonging to, e.g., Goldberg, Graff, and Bulgari which were recovered (most everything) were in still in the custody of licensed pawnbrokers when the police executed search warrants of their premises in midtown Manhattan following Khan's arrest on March 5, 2003.

Regrettably, last week's NY Times article doesn't give readers a link to its own September 2003 piece on Derek Khan, published shortly after he went to prison, that gives a more in-depth look at him & what happened in the winter of 2003. So, voilà:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/21/style/tumbling-from-the-hip-hop-heights.html

 

[KaeKae]

and on a much smaller note, never take $100 bills to a bank
I tried to make a deposit using 100 bills. The teller said the bills were counterfeit and confiscated them. I told them to just give me my money back, but they said I was out of luck.
Turns out the young ladies had never seen a bill that did not say "in God We Trust" [which was added in the 60's]
I got my money back, but it shocked me that they could just say -no you can't have these back- you lose.

I was a bank teller in the late 80s. We were instructed to confiscate any bills suspected of being counterfeit. Of course, that would have actually been done thru bank management. Our training was to detect possible counterfeit bills, and notify a supervisor. I believe there would have been further investigation/examination, etc., with reports made to police and so on. Luckily, I never came across anything questionable.

 

[anne_h]

Question - what happened to the family who 'owned' the diamond and sent it in to be appraised? Are they just SOL? Since it wasn't already insured, obviously they can't submit a claim about it...

Anne

 

[MollyMalone]

The Zaretskys have filed a federal lawsuit against GIA, William Goldberg Diamond Corp., and others (not all the names are set forth in the online page below). ;They brought the action in NJ federal court; it was transferred in February to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan (Southern District of NY), where it is still pending. In those court papers, the Zaretskys are apparently claiming that their diamond is not the same diamond as the one that Khan made off with, and oddly enough, that Ms. Zaretsky's father purchased the pear from Manhattan jeweler Louis E. Newman, not Stanley & Son as reported (seemingly by them) in the recent NY Times piece.
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nysdce/1:2014cv01113/423465