Three Romanian nationals were sentenced on Tuesday to four years in prison for the staggering theft in 2017 of diamonds, worth one million euros, which have never been found. The alleged sponsor, a Serb who lived in the Paris region and who is the subject of an international arrest warrant, for his part was sentenced to five years in prison by the court of Castres (Tarn).
In early 2017, the criminals contacted Monaco with an Indian merchant, Nishit Shah, and his partner, a Tarn jeweler, to acquire diamonds. Two meetings take place in the weeks that follow in Milan, in luxurious places, where false buyers display their supposed wealth, in particular by posting bundles of 500-euro banknotes, and by declaring that they want to pay the diamonds in cash. Distrustful, the Tarnais withdrew from the negotiations but his Indian partner continued them.
In August 2017, a third meeting took place in Mazamet, near Castres. The Indian brought three diamonds, authenticated and certified. The last negotiations are concluded between the Indian and a false expert, also Romanian, sent by the false buyers. The transaction is entered. The Indian puts the three diamonds in a special, sealed box, which was brought in by the alleged expert.
This box has a double bottom, which allows the false expert to steal the precious stones. Throughout these negotiations and the flight, he never ceased to leave the room to telephone, "to smoke and fool the vigilance of the seller," said the president of the court. The Indian leaves with the sealed box to wait for the promised bank transfer. He will never come. He then opens the empty box. "A sleight of hand in a double bottom case, long negotiations, the scam of a victim," summed up the prosecutor of Castres.
The court followed the requisitions of the prosecution, with continued detention for the three Romanians. The Serbian sponsor is still wanted and the diamonds cannot be found. The Indian owner who was duped died of a heart attack in 2018.
