DUBAI, 12 January — Synthetic diamonds are allegedly making their way into Dubai from Italy, Thailand and Russia, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The super-quality synthetic diamonds were a few months ago wreaking havoc in UK’s jewelry trade, the Gulf News said. Anita Dillen, certificates manager at Diamond High Council in Belgium, at the time warned everyone to be wary of super-quality fakes emerging around the world and Dubai’s wholesalers, jewelers and official groups said they were on top of the problem even before it reared its ugly head.
But now, it appears synthetic diamonds, which are "grown" in machines and have the same composition as a natural diamond, are in Dubai.
"Yes, for sure these synthetic diamonds are here because it is a free port and anything can come in," said a UAE-based diamond expert.
It is legal to bring in synthetic diamonds to the UAE and it becomes a felony only when they are sold as real diamonds. "If you bring in a synthetic diamond to Dubai and sell it as a synthetic diamond then that is fine — but when you sell it as natural diamond then it is cheating," the expert said.
He said synthetic diamonds are coming in from Italy, Russia and Thailand. "This is where they have been seen but it is hard to say what the origin of them is because all you need to make them is a laboratory and the right equipment."
Apparently the synthetic diamond is not cheap. "They say it is cheaper to extract a natural one from the ground than to ‘grow’ one — but the problem is when people try to sell them as natural diamonds," siad the expert.
