Mumbai diamond expert says 80 % of Nirav Modi brand is fake and overvalued, gives tip on how to buy branded jewellery without being cheated
Mumbai: “Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi and his nephew Mehul Choksi were a big fraud. They not only cheated banks but also the buyers who trusted the big brands like Gitanjali and other several brands. After the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case came to light many of the clients got their jewelries checked and were shocked with the outcome”, revealed Hardik Hundia a Mumbai based diamond expert.
Nirav Modi brought shame to Indian diamond industry which sells 9 out of 10 diamonds sold all over the world, said Hardik Hundia. He added that Nirav Modi used to over value his product by 200 times and more. After the PNB scam came to fore a few people came forward to evaluate the diamonds they bought.
“In one classic case I am aware of is of a person who had bought diamonds for Rs. 5 lakh and when valuation was done it valued at only Rs. 25,000. This was not the only case, many people came to know about the fraud done to them, but this cheating was done in such a way that a police complaint cannot be filed. For all the diamonds sold by his (Nirav Modi’s) company they had the certification of the same company. They did not get certification done by neutral agencies like GIA or IGI or IGL”, remarked Hundia.
Hundiya also raised doubts about the jewellery seized by agencies from the showrooms of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali, he said “it is difficult to recover even fifty percent of the estimated book value of the seized jewellery after selling it.”
A former managing director of Mehul Choksi’s firm Santosh Shrivastava alleged that large quantities of diamonds sold by Choksi’s brands were lab produced with high prices that were nowhere close to the price at which they were sold to the customers.
Similarly, a Canadian buyer was duped for almost US $2,00,000 and the diamonds were sold by the Hong Kong branch.There are more such stories which forewarn that buying branded jewellery is quite risky.
This Diamond Expert gave a few tips regarding safe buying of diamond jewellery. Firstly buy from a genuine brand, secondly check the certification. If a self-certification is given, never buy it. Always ask for neutral agency certificates.
Diamond valuation depends on its clarity, carat, color, shade, cut etc. Now there are standard procedures for valuation of diamond jewellery and can be evaluated from a recognised laboratory, adds Hundia.
Hundia said that Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) in Bandra where all the major diamond traders association is headquartered should come clean on the diamond trading done by fraudulent means. Even today some traders are using fraudulent means and diamond merchant chamber office bearers are aware of it, he further argued.
