Swiss Courts Refuse To Consider Diamond Smuggling
Everybody knows that every gem quality diamond finds a home somewhere in the jewelry sector, regardless of whether it is Kimberley Process Certified (KPC) or not. These black market diamonds end up made legitimate at some point so that they can sold as KPC certified. I’ve heard that smuggled diamonds account from anywhere from 5% to 20% of all diamond commerce.
In an article published in the French journal, Le Point, Geneva and Zurich are described as zones of lawlessness in which diamonds valued at hundreds of millions of Euros are smuggled and essentially made untraceable in order to circumvent the Kimberly Process.
See the article, here, translated by Google. The Swiss Court refuses to hear the case on a technicality, but the real issue is that there is simply too much money to be made.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher, Fairjewelry.org.
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