Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

All attention was focused on the dazzling, Vanessa Williams, who had brightened the red carpet with the Itay Malkin Jewelry on her while at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The jewelry she was modeling included diamond drop earrings that were a contemporary balance of baguette and emerald cut diamonds, combined with pink and yellow diamonds. The total weight was 12.36-carats set into shining 18-carats white gold. Her bracelet was a fine and beautiful piece of petite, princess-cut diamond rows of 72-carat total weight, set in platinum that suited her customized Kevan Hall printed dress with a mermaid figure of complete perfection.

This has not been Malkin’s first time on the red carpet. Just last week Kim Cattrall wore a stylish pair of black diamond cluster earrings to the DVD premiere of Sex and The City on Thursday, September 18. On the same night, Rachael Ray amazed the “Focus: An Evening of Photography to Benefit City Harvest” wearing a set of earrings, necklace and ring from Itay Malkin’s premiere, Black Diamond jewelry collection. Sara Jessica Parker, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Adrian Grenier are other celebrities who have dressed in some of Itay Malkin’s jewelry.

There is a serious concern on how the jewelry industry will endure the downturn. Can it be said that a diamond is a commodity? It is believed that branding will destroy dealer markers for generic diamonds. The Rapaport International Diamond conference for this year will be discussing such issues and other imperative matters concerning the jewelry industry.

The group’s CEO, Martin Rapaport says, “This year’s conference is about survival- your survival. The old game of price, quality and service competition is over. How are you going to compete against a recession, credit crunch and double-digit inflation? The key is strategic thinking. Strategic competition. Those that think smarter will survive. Those that don’t, won’t.”

The conference will include a variety of speakers and topics such as Gerald Celente of The Trends Research Institution (U.S. Economy); Ralph Desitino, Chaiman, Gemological Institute of America (Branding); Neal Goldberg, President and CEO, Zale Corporation (Retailing); Rahul Kadakia, Senior Vice President, Christie’s America (Auction Markets); Rajiv Mehta, CEo, Dimexon Diamonds and Executive Director, Eurostar Diamonds (Diamond Markets); Mark Moeller, CEO, R.F. Moeller Jeweler; President, American Gem Society (Retailing); Martin Rapaport, the Rapaport Group (Commoditization); James E. Shigley, PhD, Distinguished Research Fellow, Gemological Institute of America (Technology); Victor van der Kwast, CEO, ABN, AMRO, International Diamond and Jewelry Group (Economy and Finance).

The cost for the conference will begin at $ , along with a formal luncheon for $. Lastly is a special Hotel/Conference Package offered for $599. The package includes a special one night deluxe room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The earnings from the conference will be donated to the Jewelers of Children and the non-profit Fair Trade Diamond and Jewelry Association.

The very well known company with its owner who is popularly known as Jacob the Jeweler is sewing Wyclef Jean for over $300,000 for watches and jewelry that was bought from the company.

Jacob Arabo may be locked up in prison for the next 2 1/2 years for denying the involvement in a drug ring to federal investigators, but that definitely doesn’t stop him from continuing his business.

On Tuesday, the company filed papers in Manhattan Supreme Court saying that the former singer, Wyclef Jean purchased a number of items going back to March 2002, until January 2006, with the total amount adding to, $765,100.

Although, the singer has not yet finished the payments fir the entire sum, leaving him in debt for another $319,680. The New York Daily News described the complaint of the company by quoting them asking for, “repeated demands for payment.”

Several purchases, which Wyclef made, included a Chopard watch worth $225,000, 4.85- carat diamond stud earrings costing $30,000, and a diamond Jesus head for $12,000.

Arabo, who is also identified as the King of Bling in the hip-hop world is especially famous for doing business with bejeweled stars such as, Eva Longoria, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Madonna, Elton John, Kanye West and Sean Diddy Combs.   

Representatives of Wyclef had not responded right away, when contacted through email.

Wyclef Jean has been very involved in helping out his country, Haiti, through his foundation called Yele Haiti, which successfully raised millions of dollars for the cause of providing food, creating jobs, and supporting local cultivation.

Wyclef also started a project called, “Together for Haiti” and on his website, described the charitable project as an “emergency allegiance for food crisis relief.”Â

A pair of diamond earrings with an average value of $20,000 were found in a New York dumpster after they were accidently thrown away.

The owner of the diamond earrings, as well as her husband and dustmen were lucky enough to find the earrings only after an intense search in filthy garbage.

The earrings, which had a total of three-carat diamonds, were an anniversary gift for Haya Sharon. The find of the earrings were considered “a miracle” to Haya Sharon, who thought she’d never see them again.

The earrings were left in a small jar of cleaning solution in the Ms. Sharon’s jewelry shop when one of the workers accidentally threw in away.

The earrings were tracked down to Fresh Kills landfill, where the garbage from New York is compacted and sent out of the state.

Keith Mellis, the dump  spokesman said it was not the first time precious stones were recovered from piles of city trash, Other such findings included engagement rings as well.

Four years ago Ebay was taken to court by Tiffany & Co. for allowing Ebay members to sell fake brand name jewelry.

After being in legal battle for such a long period of time, Judge Richard Sullivan from the US district Court in Manhattan has finally ruled that Ebay had acted just fine.

Tiffany believes that Ebay is required to watch for trademarked and copyrighted material and should have removed it immediately. Ebay has disagreed and held that it was not liable for such listings unless the trademark proprietor itself reported it. Judge Sullivan made a decision that US law does not call for proactive removal.

The 66-page ruling is quoted: “The law demands a specific knowledge as to which items are infringing and which seller is listing those items before requiring Ebay to take action, the result of the application of this legal standard is that Tiffany must bare the ultimate burden of protecting its trademark.”

Another recent situation, which occurred this spring with a German court, that ordered the online auctioneer to ensure and stop the sale of fake Rolex watches.

Ebay feels that the Tiffany suit should have never happened and states, “While today’s decision is a victory for consumer choice, it is a shame that so much effort has been wasted when Tiffany could have worked with Ebay to more effectively fight counterfeits. Ebay will continue to lead the industry with innovative solutions to stop the sale of counterfeits.”

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.” 

                                                     

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>