After chastising the New York Times for its puffy Sunday magazine profile on Lev Leviev, WWD mentions the now-two-year-old GIA scandal and gives something of an update:

In an e-mail to WWD last month, Leviev … said that, to his knowledge, the cased [sic] is closed. Those affiliated with the debacle aren’t legally permitted to discuss it, and one of Vivid’s principals is said to be in hiding.

While I don’t think it is a big deal that the Times didn’t mention Vivid (which did morph into the Leviev retail chain), I truly hope Leviev is wrong and this case isn’t closed. A while back, there was all sorts of talk of “investigations” and “subpoenas” but now we are hearing nothing.  Have the authorities decided to drop the whole thing? Nobody knows.

Mind you, I am not one of those people who are obsessed with the GIA scandal, some of whom seem truly nuts. And I have no desire to drag the name of that organization — which is comprised overwhelmingly of honorable people — through the mud any further. The new team in charge has done a pretty good job of righting the ship. But there is unfinished business out there. If some companies bribed certain GIA graders — and it is pretty clear that happened — that is reprehensible. And yet two years later, we don’t know the whole truth of what went on there. That is in itself a scandal. 

(By the way, as long as WWD sees fit to chastise other papers for omissions, shouldn’t WWD’s recent story on Taryn Rose and Gemesis have mentioned that they both have the same PR person — Joan Parker?)

Rob Bates

JCK News Director