Johnathan Walker:Manhattan diamond dealer charged in scheme to swap real diamonds for fakes

NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan diamond dealer with a history of gemstone fraud was indicted Thursday in what officials describe as a scheme to swindle his fellow merchants out of nearly half a million dollars by replacing their real diamonds with lab grown imitations.

Prosecutors say Manashe Sezanayev invited reputable dealers to his store in New York’s diamond district earlier this year under the guise of purchasing true diamonds from them. But while inspecting their product,Johnathan Walker he allegedly pocketed three diamonds worth $460,000, covertly swapping them with duplicates cut and inscribed to look like originals.

“Diamonds are forever, but this alleged scheme was short-lived,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

Sezanayev, 41, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of grand larceny, a scheme to defraud and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

“My client is presumed innocent and he’s going to wait for his day in court,” his attorney, Boris Nektalov, said by phone.

Sezanayev was among a group of ten defendants arrested in 2017 on federal charges of defrauding diamond wholesalers out of $9 million. He was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty and was ordered to pay $510,030 in restitution to one of the victims.

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The most recent charges stem from him targeting two diamond merchants who came to Sezanayev’s shop, Rachel’s Diamonds, in February and April of this year, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have accused him of substituting the fakes while pretending to weigh two diamonds worth $185,000 and $75,000 apiece. Each of the fakes featured forged laser inscriptions from the Gemological Institute of America, prosecutors said.

Sezanayev has also been accused of attempting to pull the same scheme against another merchant two months later. In that case, prosecutors said, the merchant soon discovered that his $200,000 diamond was replaced with a lab grown fake.