SURAT: It seems an open war between the US-based Rapaport Group chairman, Martin Rapaport and the world’s largest diamond mining company, De Beers, has not affected the diamantaires, especially the De Beers sightholders in Surat and Mumbai.On June 3, Rapaport had openly attacked India and the De Beers during the JCK Las Vegas breakfast conference. The diamond fraternity in Surat and Mumbai was annoyed with the statements such as the diamond and gems industry in India is not complying with the anti-money laundering (AML) act and the counter terrorist funding (CTF).At the inauguration of the three-day exhibition on loose diamonds, organised by Surat Diamond Association (SDA), Rapaport shared stage with the owners of De Beers sightholder companies including chairman of Venus Jewels, Sevanti Shah, chairman of Shree Ramkrishna Export, Govind Dholakiya, chairman of Kiran Gems, Vallabh Lakhani, chairman of KARP Impex, Kishore Maldar and chairman of Dharmanandan Diamonds, Lalji Patel on Tuesday.During the last month’s JCK Las Vegas event, Rapaport lambasted the De Beers for not allowing its clients to disclose the provenance of diamonds, destroying transparency of making source verification of diamonds impossible and also called upon the US retailers and the government to prevent De Beers from operating in the US.Rapaport had said that De Beers’ policy is “a tool, a device, it’s a way to monopolize” and said it should “expect an antitrust investigation” on this policy. “I will make sure it happens,” he said, and added he hopes to prevent De Beers from operating in the United States. In a letter issued to its clients, De Beers states: “In relation to programmes such as Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) ‘Mine to Market’ (M2M), or other downstream entities’ initiatives seeking to make provenance claims. We have declined all such requests. The Sightholder Signature License Clause 3.6.6 states: ‘you will not represent that any particular diamond or diamonds are sourced, or originated, from us or any member of the De Beers Group except with our prior written consent.”More than half of the De Beers clients are the companies owned by the Gujarati diamantaires in Surat, Mumbai and Antwerp. Out of the annual sales of more than $5.5 billion worth of rough diamonds, over 60 per cent is bought by the Indian companies.Rapaport has also gone out public to oppose De Beers for his new venture into the synthetic diamond business.

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