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Martin Rapaport Writes Condemning Letter to Leonardo DiCaprio for Synthetic Diamond Claims

Published

9 years ago

April 4, 2016

INSTORE Staff

“You are literally taking the bread out of the mouths of the poorest people on earth.”

In the latest issue of Rapaport magazine, Martin Rapaport penned a deep opinion piece called the “Synthetic Diamond Scam” that vigorously criticizes the “fundamentally unethical” way in which synthetic diamonds are marketed and sold, asserting that “the current market for synthetic diamonds is evil and consumers that buy them are suckers.”

Naturally, he takes up beef with Leonardo DiCaprio – an investor in synthetic diamond maker Diamond Foundry – and says that his diamonds “threaten the lives of millions of artisanal diggers.” At the bottom of the article, Rapaport includes a letter he wrote to the movie star in which he pleads that DiCaprio stop promoting synthetic diamonds as a more ethical product than legitimate natural diamonds, citing the 1.5 million diggers in Africa who are highly impoverished and rely on the natural diamond industry for their livelihoods. The real zinger aimed at Leo: “You are literally taking the bread out of the mouths of the poorest people on earth. And you are calling it ethical. That is super wrong.”

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