Fraud Warning and Fake Kimberley Process Certificates for Sierra Leone and Guinea

Submitted by admin on Tue, 05/27/2014 - 03:54

The [U.S.] Department of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising the public on several scams involving Kimberley Process Certificates. Legitimate Kimberley Process Certificates are used to control the international trade in rough diamonds.

Recently, in one elaborate scheme, individuals were invited to Sierra Leone to view rough diamonds that were later evaluated as fake stones and were also provided with a fake Kimberley Process certificate numbered Sierra Leone 004199, issued in either April or May 2014. Variations of certificate SL 004199 has been presented to prospective diamond purchasers in the past three weeks...

This has been excerpted from 12 May 2014 article by Boomberg Businessweek and is available in its entirety at http://investing.businessweek.com/research/markets/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201405120510M2______EUPR_____9b090000028c37e2_3600-1 (subscription may be required)