Not to be confused with the 2009 ($65Mil) Graff's robbery or the 2003 ($41Mil) job.
No word on whether this will affect Graff's $1 Bil. Hong Kong IPO.
From the Daily Mirror:
Diamond snatched in Graff robbery by Bentley-driving bandits turns up in Hong Kong pawn shop
A big diamond snatched by Bentley-driving bandits in a brazen,
£26million London robbery has popped up in a Hong Kong pawn shop, said a
jeweller who is suing in New York to try to get it back
The more than 16-carat yellow diamond was among those snatched in a
July 2007 hold-up at a Graff Diamonds Ltd branch in London, the jeweller
said in a suit filed last week in Manhattan state Supreme Court.
A pair of sharply dressed bandits stepped out of a 250,000 US dollar
Bentley Continental Flying Spur, pretended to be shoppers and chatted
up store staffers before brandishing handguns and stealing diamonds and
gem-studded rings, necklaces, pendants and earrings, Graff and police
said at the time.
Jewels stolen in the raid on Graff's
The Hong Kong shop later submitted the diamond for certification to
the Gemological Institute of America, a New York-based non-profit
organisation that grades and identifies jewels, the lawsuit said.
The institute, which had certified the diamond before the robbery,
determined the pawn shop had presented the very same gem, although it
has been re-cut, Graff's lawsuit says.
"Graff is and was the true owner of the diamond and entitled to
immediate possession of the diamond," but the pawn shop will not let the
institute return the gem, the lawsuit says.
It is silent on the stone's value. The lawsuit says the institute
has the diamond at the moment while it awaits resolution of the
ownership dispute....MORE
