Diamond Fraud Sentence Handed Down by Antwerp Court

An Antwerp court found a number of people guilty on fraud charges, perhaps related to the Monstrey investigation. The court found one defendant guilty of organizing a system through which illegal diamond transactions were hidden from authorities.

According to reports in the local press, a man, identified as Gerard B, was sentenced to a two-year jail term and a fine of €5,000 ($7,327) for his role in developing the scam.

Thirteen diamond dealers received suspended six-month jail sentences and fines totaling €48.2 million ($70.64 million), according to the reports. The names of the diamond dealers were not revealed, though some were identified as "members" of the Mehta and Shah families.

Authorities claimed that the scam involved creating fictitious diamond shipments and invoices to explain changes in diamond dealers’ stocks. The scam allegedly hid billions of francs in unreported diamond deals.

The case began when customs authorities checked a courier at the Brussels Zaventem airport who claimed to have delivered goods to Geneva and brought back other goods. However customs officials said the courier did not spend enough time in Geneva to have completed the delivery and pickup a new shipment as well.

Further, customs officials suspected that diamonds the courier had with him when he was stopped on his return were the same goods he was carrying when he left for Geneva.

In October 2005, Belgium's Federal police seized goods from a Monstrey Worldwide Services armored truck at Brussels airport. It made a number of arrests and sealed off their Antwerp offices.

In the two years that have passed since then, police have been raiding diamond offices in Antwerp every few months, unsettling traders in the market. Some of these companies have chosen to pay a fine to have the cases against them closed.

In one of the raids, 46-year-old Antwerp diamantaire Nikhil Manilal died of a heart attack when police searched his home last December. Neither Manilal, nor his company Beltaj NV were ever found guilty of any wrongdoing.