Geneva seeks $50m missing diamond

Geneva authorities are investigating the disappearance of a pink diamond estimated to be worth about $50 million from a reputable storage firm for gems, according to a news report on Sunday.

Prosecutors ordered a probe after a South African-Guinean diamond trader, Sylla Moussa, filed a complaint in September claiming that the 50.66-carat pink diamond he had been keeping in storage with Malca-Amit had vanished, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported.

In mid-March, police searched the Geneva premises of the company, which offers transportation and storage services for gems and other valuables, and placed three of its administrators under investigation, according to the report.

The company could not be reached immediately for comment. But a company lawyer stressed in an e-mail to RTS that "Malca-Amit flatly denies Mr Moussa's allegations. The company is cooperating fully with the authorities" to dissipate any suspicions that it participated in any illegal acts, the layer said.

Moussa, who runs his company, Sylla Diamond International, out of Johannesburg, claims to have placed the large rectangular diamond in storage with Malca-Amit in 2007 as he waited to sell it for the best possible price.

But Moussa said that when he wanted to see his gem in August, he was told it had been transferred to a South African businessman he had been dealing with and who Moussa, according to his complaint, believes was the mastermind behind the crime, RTS reported.

That transfer took place despite a storage agreement he signed with Malca-Amit on Aug 16, 2007, stipulating he was the only owner of the rock.

"I have been in Geneva for six months and I will not leave until I have found my diamond," he told RTS.

Malca-Amit's lawyer told the broadcaster the company was considering filing its own suit against Moussa for making "libelous accusations", insisting a storage agreement existed proving the diamond trader had in fact picked up his jewel on April 29, 2008.

RTS said it had obtained a copy of that contract, which carries the same bar code and contract number as the contract Moussa keeps in a Swiss safe-deposit box.

However the deposit dates on the two documents differ by 13 days, and Moussa insisted the second was "a crude forgery".

Adding to the mystery, RTS pointed to an e-mail dated Jan 22, 2013, with Malca-Amit's former chief stating Moussa could access his diamond at the company's storage facility during office hours.

(China Daily 04/01/2014 page10)