Police Seize $1.5m Diamonds in Grib Probe
October 15, 23
(IDEX Online) - Police searched three properties in Antwerp and seized diamonds valued at $1.5m as part of a probe into Grib Diamonds.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating allegations that the Russian-owned company laundered money and violated European rules, according to the Dutch-language newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen.
Grib, which sells wholesale diamonds from the Grib diamond mine, in Russia, was sanctioned last month by the US in an attempt to restrict Putin's revenue for his war effort.
The public prosecutor said Grib's office in the Schupstraat were searched, as well as the company's accountant and an IT business in the Diamond District.
Grib Diamonds, a subsidiary of AGD Diamonds, has been marketing diamonds from the Grib pipe at spot market internet auctions since production began there in 2014.
The public prosecutor's office in Antwerp is understood to have evidence that Grib is being controlled by a company on the sanctions list.
Russian managers of the company are missing, said the public prosecutor's office, though it said no arrest warrants has so far been issued.
Last January, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, Grib set a company record, selling $73m of rough at latest auction - 560,000 carats at an average price of nearly $130 per carat.
We have contacted Grib Diamonds for comment.
Pic courtesy Grib Diamonds