$100 Million Dollar Paris Diamond Heist

[The Sushi Bandit]

Source: Current TV

Armed robbers pulled off one of the world's biggest jewellery heists at a famed Paris store, making off with 85 million euros (107 million dollars) in diamonds and valuables, officials said Friday.


Read more: http://current.com/items/89594488/100_million_dollar_paris_diamond_heist.htm

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The article says that eastern european countries have become a big market for stolen gems. Terrorists are also using gems as currency.

[clixtox]

1. That number is the retail value, not the actual value, not even close...

but still that is a boatload of jewelry.

Sounds so much like an "inside job"!

[scytherius]

2. Call Clouseau! n/t

nt

[Auggie]

3. Who wants to bet Brad Pitt will star in the movie?

[Gman]

8. Along with George Clooney...

Bernie Mac, Elliot Gould, Matt Damon, Carl Reiner, et al...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. I'd be awfully impressed if Bernie Mac starred.

:wow:

[TheWraith]

4. I picked the wrong industry. nt

[Sirveri]

5. If the thieves were bankers they would make 7000 times that ammount!

[not fooled]

6. Yeah, Paulson

is rolling his eyes to express his disdain for the small-time pikers.:eyes:

[Baby Snooks]

7. Like the song says...

"Diamonds are a drag queen's best friend..." It would be funny if it turned out to be a couple of drag queens who do Marilyn Monroe and wanted the real stuff instead of the costume stuff.

Scary either way. You do have to wonder about terrorists. Diamonds have been used in various "black markets" because at one point they were not traceable but each diamond has a distinct pattern the way snowflakes do and some diamonds now are actually "marked" to make it easier to identify them. But if they're professionals, the larger stones will be recut to change the pattern or get rid of the mark. And they end back at Harry Winston at some point. Nothing like buying your diamonds that were stolen and not realizing you are buying your diamonds that were stolen. With a new "mark" and a new pattern. Or they end up in a private collection. Never questioned at the point they are auctioned off.

The actual stones of course are not worth $100 million but still worth millions. So you do have to wonder what they will be traded for.

Of course, again, they may never be seen again. Except at drag shows.

[pitohui]

9. they'll be recut and the stone mutilated, they cannot be restored to their full potential once cut

very very sad

[psychopomp]

15. You make it sound like there is something special about these shiny rocks

The price of diamonds will fall to a more reasonable amount once production methods ramp up:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

The New Diamond Age

Armed with inexpensive, mass-produced gems, two startups are launching an assault on the De Beers cartel.
Next up: the computing industry.

By Joshua Davis

Aron Weingarten brings the yellow diamond up to the stainless steel jeweler's loupe he holds against his eye. We are in Antwerp, Belgium, in Weingarten's marbled and gilded living room on the edge of the city's gem district, the center of the diamond universe. Nearly 80 percent of the world's rough and polished diamonds move through the hands of Belgian gem traders like Weingarten, a dealer who wears the thick beard and black suit of the Hasidim.

"This is very rare stone," he says, almost to himself, in thickly accented English. "Yellow diamonds of this color are very hard to find. It is probably worth 10, maybe 15 thousand dollars."

"I have two more exactly like it in my pocket," I tell him.

He puts the diamond down and looks at me seriously for the first time. I place the other two stones on the table. They are all the same color and size. To find three nearly identical yellow diamonds is like flipping a coin 10,000 times and never seeing tails.
/snip

[rasputin1952]

10. I wonder why they would use them as currency...

They are all unique and if already cut, they have, (at least the more desirous one's), would be registered somewhere.

They could never resurface for the "value" given, even cut, they would maintain their unique characteristics and could be traced back.

So, even if used at "currency", said currency would be, forever more be used in Black Market operations. It's not like one would be able to "launder" them...:shrug:

[Turbineguy]

11. Looks like somebody is getting

an executive bonus!

[SalmonChantedEvening]

12. Somebody frisk Cheyney.

And no, I'm not volunteering.

[martymar64]

14. It's the french Job

Somebody needs to talk to Charlie Croker.

[JohnAB]

16. Sounds so much like an "inside job"!

what is easer to sell that is stolen or that which is already sold

it cant happen here. or could it.