Sanctions Row: Buyer Sues over $645,000 Diamonds
March 05, 23
(IDEX Online) - A US jewelry buyer who spent $645,000 on diamonds using a Russian-linked debit card is taking legal action - claiming she received neither the goods nor a refund.
Maria Zurabova, from Florida, says made her purchase at jeweler Royal Star Inc, in Manhattan's Diamond District, paying paid with a card linked to Alfa Bank - Russia's biggest private bank - which she held because she has friends and family in the country.
The US fintech business Square Inc - subsequently rebranded as Block Inc - took the payment but claims it couldn't process it because of sanctions imposed on 26 March after Russia invaded Ukraine.
However Zurabova insists she made the purchase two weeks earlier, so it shouldn't have been affected. She says she has received neither the goods, nor had her money returned.
"Despite the fact that none of the sanctions affected Zurabova's transactions, Square claimed that Alfa Bank was sanctioned and that therefore it could not process Zurabova's purchase," says her complaint, filed in a San Francisco federal court, where Square is based, according to a report by Bloomberg News.