Headlines

Scandal-Hit Lugano Diamonds Gets Initial Bankruptcy Financing as It Seeks Buyer

Any inventory sale won’t feature “bikini-clad women”, promises attorney for GOB manager.

Published

2 months ago

November 20, 2025

Chris Burslem

Troubled luxury jeweler Lugano Diamonds & Jewelry Inc. has secured court approval to tap up to $1.5 million of a larger $12 million Chapter 11 financing package as it launches a search for a buyer only a week before the start of the peak holiday shopping season.

According to a report in the USA Herald, Delaware bankruptcy Judge Brendan L. Shannon, who approved the funding, also signed off on an interim agency-sale partnership with Enhanced Retail Funding LLC, an affiliate of Gordon Brothers, signaling that Lugano’s dazzling inventory — diamonds, fine jewelry, and luxurious display fixtures and equipment — will begin moving almost immediately.

ERF’s attorney, Steven Fox of Riemer & Braunstein LLP, stressed that any inventory sale would not resemble a bargain-bin retail collapse. “We’re not going out there with sandwich boards or bikini-clad women waving ‘going out of business’ signs,” he told the court. “This is a completely different population of inventory — and a very different client base.”

Newport, CA-based Lugano filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a series of lawsuits accused founder Mordechai “Moti” Ferder of defrauding clients and disappearing with their money, the Los Angeles Times reports.

click to Comment(Comment)

Up Next

Natural Diamond Council Appoints Amber Pepper as CEO

Don't Miss

American Gem Society Relaunches Find a Jeweler Week, Dec. 1-5

Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson

When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."