Court Awards Stafford $6.9 Million in ‘Missing Pink Diamond’ Case

A 5.56 carat pink diamond worth an estimated $1.5 million that went missing in 2006 fetched the sending party, Stafford Jewelers, $6.9 million in damages and lawyers’ fees, a jury ruled on November 18.

The unanimous judgment was handed by a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Julius Klein Diamonds.

According to court documents, Stafford Jewelers shipped the diamond in February 2006 to New York based Julius Klein Diamonds LLC. Julius Klein Diamonds said it never got the stone - only an open and empty box.

Shipping company Brinks said that an internal investigation concluded that the package was delivered unopened and with no signs of tampering.

Julius Klein Diamonds, a Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Sightholder, claimed that because it never received the diamond, it could not have lost or stole it.

According to industry analysts Chaim Even-Zohar, John Stafford originally bought the diamond for $8,000 from an unidentified man at a restaurant in Las Vegas.

The jury ruled that Julius Klein Diamonds was unjustly enriched by its acquisition of the pink diamond without compensating Stafford Jewelers, that the company wrongfully converted and exercised dominion and control over the pink diamond and that the company was found liable of civil liability for a criminal act.