Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

While stock markets and real estate values decline, prices of the most rare colors and colorless diamonds are being increased and are attracting the wealthy investors as well as structured funds. Diamonds, which are a commodity rather than a necessity, are being used as a new investment.

According to the website of International Diamond and Jewelry Exchange, 5-carat gems that are originally sold for $1 million or more, have gone higher by 76.5% within the year, stopping at May 2008.

The managing director of London- based Graff Diamonds International: Francois Graff said in an interview, “There’s a group of savvy, tremendously wealthy people who have put a small portion of their fortunes aside to invest in diamonds… They’ve made incredible returns.” Graff continues to state a comparison of the present to five years ago, when dealers paid $70,000 per carat for colorless diamonds for 10 carats and above.

Dealers are now paying over $200,000 per carat.

Diamonds have become more rare then ever. Christie’s International European director of jewelry says there is an approximate of only 200 highest grade, D-flawless colorless diamonds of over five carats that are discovered per year, let alone blue and pink stones of large scale, which are even more uncommon.

According to the IDEX website, Diamond Circle Capital is the first known fund to invest in rare colored and colorless diamonds.

At an interview, Allan Bronstein, New York diamonds dealer was quoted saying, over the last twelve months, the best pink and blue diamonds have increased in prices between 75 and 100 percent.”

The Natural History museum in London now has Bronstein’s Aurora Collection of 296 colored diamonds on loan. These diamonds are considered the rarest and most beautiful makings in the world.

The diamond market is very similar to the art market in the sense that they are both based on individual dealings, says Graff. He continues by stating that, “The wealthy don’t need to invest in funds. They can just pick up a telephone and buy the things for themselves.”

Graff has sold a D-flawless, emerald-cut diamond of 243.96 carats to an Asian buyer for $99.6 million and says that this was not the only person who was ready to buy the stone. Another of Graff’s stones was a flawless 20-carat fancy deep-blue diamond, also marked for about the same price.

It is assumed that when stock markets drop it benefits the diamond district, since people with much wealth begin to turn to more tangible things to invest in. Diamond prices are expected to stay high for at least the next six months if not more, believing that the amount of colored diamonds will still be scarce.¼/p>

After receiving its first polished tender of diamonds from Ellendale in Australia, Gem Diamonds has already made it to selling 15.7 carats totaling a value of $453,102, which is $28,860 per carat. The company began its successful expansion of polished tenders in January.

CEO Clifford Elpnick is quoted emphasizing on the Ellendale tender: “The success of this beneficiation trial supports managment’s view of the significant additional margin that can be captured from the cutting and polishing of Ellendale’s top diamonds and we are very encouraged by the results.”

Gem Diamonds has already made it to selling at the tender, four intense and vivid yellow diamonds that were cut and polished from 28.5 carats of rough, by Antwerp-based Matrix Diamond Technology.

Several stones that were part of the collection included a 7.1-carat cushion cut vivid yellow diamond that was sold for $52,000 per carat., and a 2.3-carat cushion cut vivid yellow diamond, which was sold for $19,000 per carat.

 Ellendale mine was purchased by Gem Diamonds from Kimberley Diamond Company in July of 2007 for $263 million.

Once Ellendale mine came under the ownership of Gem Diamonds, the company said it has “implemented an aggressive turnaround strategy that is yielding not only more of these spectacular diamonds, but also a real return on the company’s investment.”

De Beers, one of the world’s most powerful diamond companies has raised their prices by 5% this month. Most of their diamonds come from Anglo American, a very large mining group which is 45% owned by De Beers.

 Earlier this year The Diamond Trade Company (DTC) came on with a strong demand for diamonds in the markets rising in Asia. Therefore, leading to an increase in prices by 8.5%.

Last month, a De Beers official explained that since there is such a great demand for diamonds in China, India and the Middle East then this would be an advantage to their company. U.S. sales will now become even slower then they already were before, and they cross out half of the jewelry market, giving De Beers a better chance in business.

De Beers had responded in a question through email, by saying, “Some increases have been made at the July Sight, the overall effect of which is plus five percent.”

While De Beers manages at least 40% of the diamond market, it posted flat output of diamonds last year at 51 million carats which is expected to have an outcome by 2008.

As much as Mariah has been planning a surprise, reports have gotten one step ahead of her by discovering her plans for a $4 million wedding ceremony to celebrate her marriage to the rapper, Nick Cannon.

Mariah and Nick had a secret wedding this past April in the Bahamas. Ever since that wedding, there have been reports on Mariah hosting a mind-blowing event in New York this summer, to renew their vows in front of friends and family.

Carey has been denying the rumors about the bigger ceremony up until recently when she was no longer able to keep it in, claiming that it’s just too difficult to keep the secret when the press keeps mentioning a $4 million wedding. Now she criticizes the press for spreading the stories.

Mariah describes her dream wedding by saying, “Why? What - did we set a budget? ‘It’s gonna be $4 million! It’s going to be really cool! We’re going to give away gold as people leave! We’re going to sprinkle them with gold! It’s going to be very Coming to America.’

                                                                               

“What do you think? Our whole point (in having the unannounced beach wedding) was to do the opposite!”

Mariah cannot possibly be happier, and satisfied with her new body, new record, and her hot new man as she is quoted saying, “I always wanted to be kidnapped. I just wanted a way out, but i didn’t have one…(NickCannon) He sort of kidnapped me and took me on a helicopter ride. Then he re-proposed.”

Nick Cannon first proposed to Mariah on her rooftop in Manhattan, which involved the hiding of a 17-carat diamond ring inside a candy ring pop.

Samantha Ronson has decided to take her relationship to the next level by surprising her assistant/roommate/rough sex partner, Lindsay Lohan on her twenty second birthday with a Cartier diamond ring worth $22,000. Ronson got the ring for Lindsay while the inseparable couple was shopping over the weekend. Of course, Lindsay quickly slipped the ring on to the one finger that engagement and wedding rings are worn.

This is not the first time that the couple has expressed their love through ring exchanging. The first time was back in March of this year when both roommates exchanged matching rings with each other’s initials on them, similar to girls in grade-school who would trade toys with their BFF’s trying to instill some sort of deal between themselves that their friendship will last forever with the memory of a piece of plastic.

About a month later, the rings were switched so that Lindsay had the ring with her initials and Sam had the ring with the initials, “SR.” While Lindsay had already given up on the significance of the ring, Samantha had remained devoted by wearing her neon-colored memory up until this past weekend, when the two went shopping, once again.

Their relationship definitely continued to raise suspicions as Lohan receives a new ring to flaunt about. A source had confirmed that it is not an engagement ring, just a symbol of their commitment to each other. The source explains that Lindsay is very much ecstatic and together , they are very content.

Pictures of the couple surely give the feeling that they are a bit more than just “content,” as they were intimately and openly caught kissing on P. Diddy’s yacht , recently. Lindsay had pretty much made it clear by saying, “I just want to live a happy, healthy year, continue on the path that I have been on and be with the person that I care about, and my family.” 

                                                     

Uma Thurman and her new fiance look as if they don’t want to waste much time, rushing into a huge engagement party preceding their announced engagement just last week.

The couple managed to attract a whole group of celebrity A-listers to the bash.

It was only to be expected of Busson, the multimillionaire financier, to throw a huge engagement party after giving Uma Thurman an enormous ring said to be an eight-carat center stone surrounded by twenty smaller diamonds.

          

Some of the guests at the party included Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, and supermodel Claudia Schiffer, followed by Liz Hurley, Damien Hirst, Bob Geldof, Jemima Khan and Charlotte Princess of Monaco.

 The grand party took place in a marquee in the garden of Arpad Busson’s house in Kensington, west London.

Busson is an old hand at planning such facinating parties. His children’s charity, Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), hosted a fund raising gala dinner that raised more then US $50 million last month.

The French financier is now expected to throw an even bigger wedding in order to top the engagement ring given to Uma prior to the engagement party.

UBS Swiss bank has been buying diamonds for wealthy American clients and has been smuggling the diamondsin a toothpaste tube, says UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld. Instead of Americans having to buy diamonds from the U.S. and pay federal income taxes, they try and get it easy by importing the diamonds from Switzerland based bank UBS employees.

The IRS was informed to serve a ‘John Doe’ summons on the bank directing UBS to reveal the records of American taxpayers who have a UBS account in Switzerland in order to be hidden from the IRS.

According to the statement that Birkenfeld had given to the court, wealthy U.S. clients created UBS accounts with fake identities and even gave IRS false information writing that its the non-existent identity who is the owner of the offshore account. Birkenfeld’s court statement, the bank had an average of US $20 billion worth of possessions in ‘undeclared’ accounts for American taxpayers. 

The law requirements of U.S. tax payers are to state all financial accounts in foreign countries if the total amount in the account goes beyond US $10,000. Failing to follow this law can result in a fine of up to fifty percent of the total amount in the account, once the violation is discovered.

It is very rare to have a gratifying experience when children stick their hands into a toilet.

 Last week, as 10-year-old Cameron Delande from Chatham slipped on a rubber glove and dunked his hand into the toilet bowl to get his tooth brush, he found two diamond rings.

Initially Bill, Cameron’s father, a firefighter admit that no one believed his son, until he saw the rings in his son’s hand. The band was black and the stones were brown.

After taking the rings to get them cleaned, the jewelry appraiser told the family that the four stones on both rings amounted to well over a carat. The appaiser also told Delande that the solitaire might be about 100 years old from the look of its condition.

The discovery of the rings actually shocked Delande who says, “It’s just bizarre… I’ve snaked the toilet so many times. When you have four kids, things get stuck in there, believe me.”

Delande wanted to show his children the rewards of a good deed and so he decided he would try and find the owner of the rings.

Delande began his search right away, calling his real estate agent who sold the house to him on Tangelwood Drive two years ago. The agent told Delande the name of the previous owner: Mary Trainer. He told Delande that Mrs. Trainer worked in Starbucks as well.

                 

Cameron Delande holds one of the diamond rings he found in a toilet. He’s with Mary Trainor, whose mom lost the ring.

Delande took a visit to the Starbucks in Harwich, but had gotten there to late since Trainer had already left work.

Delande called information and soon enough was answering to Trainer’s voicemail box leaving her a long message. While Trainer was screening her calls she suddenly caught Delande saying, “I think I found something you’d be very interested in,” which was when she picked up her phone almost immediately.

The first thing she says when picking up the phone, which completely shocked Delande was, “Please tell me you found the diamond rings.”

Once responding to Trainer, Delande stated, “She was pretty much speechless.”

Trainer told Delande that her mother had been cleaning the rings and then wrapped them up in toilet paper so they can dry up. As Trainer’s mother finished cleaning up the bathroom, she chucked the piece of paper into the toilet and flushed it.

This unfortunate incident happened twelve years ago and her mother had passed away only five years ago. Trainer says she wishes she can show her mother the rings and have her wear them again.

The great diamond company, M. Fabrikant and Sons has just gone bankrupt leaving members of the Fortgang family, former owners of the company fighting a case. Court papers stated that a week after the judge had ordered all of the family’s possessions taken away from them, they had won a hearing and were granted monthly “personal allowance.”

The court’s order that was made on June 18th by U.S. bankruptcy court judge Stuart Bernstein authorized U.S. marshals to make sure and confiscate possessions of the members of the Fortgang family, even if it means forcing their way into the family’s apartments on Fifth and Park avenues in Manhattan as required.

The order that was issued on June 18th was in response to a complaint filed by the Shared Assets Trust” of Fabrikant lenders and creditors, who are looking to recoup assets.

Lenders and creditors state that members of the Fortgang family abstracted funds to link companies before file for chapter 11-bankruptcy protection.

However, while the June 18 order was going through, Hunter Carter of Arent Fox LLP, attorney of the Fortgang family sent a letter to judge Bernstein asking for a hearing on the issue. Fox stated that his clients “stand to be irreparably damaged by some of the provisions” included in the order.

According to court documents filed on June 24th Fox’s request for a hearing had been granted.

As they wait for their hearing, Matthew, Charles, Susan, Marjorie and Theresa Fortgang won the right to monthly personal allowance of funds from their respective banks.

The family members will also be asked to give evidence in the case, and their lawyers are cooperating with requests for discovery regarding the suspected change of funds.Â

According to news reports, Uma Thurman, the charismatic actress and Arpad “Arki” Busson, London financier are engaged. If the actress goes through with the plan and marries Busson, this will be Thurman’s third wedding.

Thurman has been previously married to Ethan Hawke, and had two children with him. The marriage ended in a divorce in 2003. Uma was also married to the actor, Gary Oldman. Busson had been married as well with the supermodel Elle Macpherson and had two sons with her. Their relationship had ended in 2005.

Stephen Huvane, Uma Thurman’s representative confirmed the rumors of her engagement saying, “I can confirm she is engaged.”

                  

The couple began dating last summer and had a growing relationship  in a short period of time. Businessman Busson is the founder and chairman of EIM Group, which is a fund management business based in London.

Busson proposed to Thurman with a diamond ring so big, “she can’t fit it through the sleeve of her coat,” New York Daily News quoted a friend of Thurman’s.

Earlier in the month, Jack Jordan, 34, had been put on probation in the U.S. for stalking Uma Thurman and harassing her children for the past two years.

 Thirty eight year old, Uma Thurman acted in several different movies ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to action thrillers and science fiction. Thurman is known best for her acting in “Pulp Fiction,” “Kill Bill” and “The Producers.”¼/p>