Trader Accused of Buying $750,000 of Diamonds for Mafia
May 23, 21
(IDEX Online) - A gem trader is accused of knowingly buying $750,000 of diamonds to help the mafia launder proceeds of a $35m tax fraud.
The Swiss citizen, identified only as C, cannot be named because of local reporting restrictions.
He's alleged to have bought the diamonds in Israel for three Italian accomplices involved in organized crime who were jailed in 2011 for a VAT scam, according to the Bloomberg news website.
The defendant is also accused of the unauthorized sale of 10kg of gold, and the unauthorized transfer of $1.1m from Swiss banks to an account in Hungary.
Active money laundering carries a maximum sentence of three years in Switzerland.