The underworld of gemstones |
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Authors: | Thomas Naylor |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Economics, McGill University, Leacock Building Room 443, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T7, Canada |
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Abstract: | In recent decades prices of high-end “colored gemstones” (trade jargon for precious stones other than diamonds), like almost
all “collectibles,” have risen dramatically. Demand has been spreading to economic classes formerly excluded at the same time
the supply of high-quality material from natural sources falls, leading to constant searches (that may take on the character
of gold-rushes) for as yet undiscovered sites. While no doubt criminogenic factors have always existed within the gemstone
business, periods of rapid price rise mean stronger temptation for illegal activities. The potential list of economic offenses,
civil, regulatory and criminal, associated with the gemstones business includes: illegal mining, environmental offenses, bribery,
gun-running, smuggling, “terrorist”(i.e. insurgent) financing, commercial fraud, mining-share swindles, money laundering and,
not least, simple theft along with recycling stolen goods. This paper represents an attempt to understand the criminogenic
factors in light of the history and current structures of the business. It fits the gemstone trade into a commercial, geo-strategic
and sociological matrix, the three often interacting in mutually reinforcing ways. It asks whether, given the incentives and
opportunities for illicit activity, relying primarily on industry self-regulation makes sense. But it also questions whether
the international regulatory regime now in place for diamonds can be applied to the far more diffuse supply-side conditions
of the colored gemstone market. Methodologically, the paper is a research essay in the political economy of clandestine international
economic activity, with particular focus on its historical, geo-strategic and sociological context rather than a more narrow,
traditional criminological study. The second may work well enough when the activity under investigation is a crime per se,
as with studies of illegal drugs. However when the activity is inherently legal, but conducted illegally, it is essential
to understand thoroughly the nature and operation of the legal business to make sense of the illegal. The illegal is buried
in and works concurrently with the legal, not in the narrow sense of having the legal as cover, but in a more profound sense
of the legal and the illegal sharing attitudes and supporting institutions. The paper is divided into three parts. The first,
“Under the Rainbow,”examines the shady side of gemstone mining in a geo-political context. The second, “In the Eye of the
Beholder,” looks at fraud in cutting and polishing of rough gemstones into finished gems. The third, “Hot Rocks, Cold Cash,”
focuses on illicit activity in the retail jewelry trade. |
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