Houston-based diamond dealer Edward Carlos St. Mary III has been charged with one count of wire fraud after he failed to pay for more than $3 million in natural diamonds he’d obtained from a vendor, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
A complaint filed May 20 in New York federal court alleges that in April 2021, St. Mary agreed to buy 286 cts. of rough stones from the New York City branch of an Indian diamond company for approximately $3.275 million. St. Mary made false statements to the seller about his ability to pay for the diamonds, and backed up his contentions with fake bank documents, the complaint alleges.
After the diamonds were delivered to a security company two months later, St. Mary made additional false statements, about why he never picked up or paid for the goods, prosecutors say. In August 2021, St. Mary allegedly retrieved the stones from the security firm’s New York City location without paying for them or notifying the diamond company.
Prosecutors further claim that later that year St. Mary told the diamond seller that the security company still had custody of the goods, and he sent a “fraudulent account statement purporting to show a wire transfer of over $3 million” to the seller.
In December 2021, according to the complaint, St. Mary sent a message to the diamond company’s owner that said, “This entire time my banker has told me that the funds were in your account. He assured me that you had already been paid. I will have it done as quick as I possibly can.”
The Justice Department statement concludes: “To date, St. Mary has neither paid for nor returned the diamonds.”
(Photo: Getty Images)
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