Headlines

CEO: Employees Altered Diamond Certificates, Have Been Fired

Published

7 years ago

September 9, 2016

The company has invalidated 156 grading certificates.

Rapaport News reports that HRD Antwerp discovered some diamond-grading documents being altered by employees at a laboratory in India. Three workers allegedly took financial incentives from a trader who wanted the diamonds he presented to the lab to be evaluated at a higher grade. HRD Antwerp has since let the employees go. It has also invalidated 156 grading certificates connected to the incident, according to Rapaport News. Peter Macken, CEO of HRD Antwerp, states in a letter that despite “effective and timely detection of the discrepancies,” it’s possible that “a limited number of diamonds concerned” entered the market. HRD Antwerp has published a list of potentially affected certificates and is offering a free check for anyone in possession of one of them. The company has filed a complaint with local authorities and banned the client from further work with HRD Antwerp, Macken said.

View the list of potentially affected certificates here.

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