$55m Diamonds Seized "to Recover Eurostar Debts"
February 06, 23
(IDEX Online) - Diamonds worth $55m have been seized in a series of raids across Antwerp, reportedly in an attempt to recover debts owed by the collapsed Eurostar Diamond Traders.
Bailiffs and police seized gems from more than a dozen homes and offices in a court-sanctioned revery of assets, according to a Bloomberg new report.
Eurostar was a De Beers sightholder and one of the world's biggest diamond traders, with a $1.6bn turnover in 2016 but it was declared bankrupt three years later, with bank debts of $560m.
The Antwerp-based company was founded in 1978 by Kaushik Mehta (pictured) who built a rough diamond polishing empire, with subsidiaries in New York, Shanghai, Botswana, Hong Kong, the UEA and India.
Bloomberg said the Mehta family declined to comment, as did representatives for ABN Amro, Carlyle Group Inc, Grant Thornton and Standard Chartered.