Investigation of GGIE Lab Certificates!

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Investigation of GGIE Lab Certificates!

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Much thanks goes out to Robert James of the ISG! RJ went to great lengths to figure out what this lab is doing, and has uncovered evidence that points to them issuing fraudulent certs. I hope no one here has purchased anything they certified, but if you have, please let me know what happened and I will alert RJ, or you can alert him yourself, but either way, please let us know if you've found another instance of them scamming gem buyers. :evil:

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Investigation of GGIE Lab Certificates!

As an insurance investigator at USAA (among other duties) I had the honor to work with, and learn from, retired U.S. Secret Service and FBI agents who headed up the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) there. The one lesson that each of these outstanding professionals taught me was this: There is no perfect fraud. There is no perfect crime. No matter how meticulous the perpetrators, they always forget something, leave something in, or fail to recognize an issue that becomes their downfall. Now, as an independent insurance adjuster and investigator (Texas Department of Insurance License #1300443) I work to investigate and expose fraud in the gemstone industry in an effort to protect both consumers and the many honest industry gem dealers trying to compete with the bad guys. Today I have yet another example of a wide-spread fraud being perpetrated that without some experienced investigating would go undetected.

Gem Lab Dichotomy

One of the biggest areas of fraud in the gemstone industry is in the area of gemological labs. From the biggest name: Gemological Institute of America and their US$300 million tax free annual revenue, to the smaller labs like the Global Gemological Institute of Excellence in India (we are going to talk about today), gem labs have become the dichotomy of the industry. On one hand the gem labs have created an environment where gemstones virtually cannot be sold on the market without a certificate of some kind. On the other hand, gemological labs operate in a legal void. No uniform standards. No oversight. No governing body to control the ethics and quality of gem lab operations. Think about if medical labs could operate like this. But the gemological lab industry world-wide operates without any kind of oversight or requirement to adhere to any kind of legal standard.

It is a recipe for disaster and here is a prime example from eBay and the GGIE Lab.

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As you can see, this is an offer of a 9.30 carat Colombian Natural Green Emerald. Very impressive presentation with a starting bid price of $9.99. OK, for those of you who have been around awhile a red flag is already up but think about this from a consumer point of view. Yep, it is impressive and just maybe a place I can pick up something special for a gift. OK, so I bid on this thing and win. I paid more than the initial bid price but not much more. This is just a low ball example. I have seen this same thing in the hundreds of dollars on eBay.

When I got the item in the mail it was again, very impressive. Below you see the front and back of the GGIE Labs Certificate of Authenticity. It caught my first attention that the refractive index was listed as 1.56. Emeralds usually run in the 1.57 – 1.58 range, but it was a minor issue.

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I weighed the stone and sure enough, the weight was spot on, 9.30 carats. So far so good.

Then I tested it further and this was clearly not an emerald, it was a faceted piece of green glass.

At this point I contacted the seller about the green glass with GGIE Certificate of Authenticity being fake. His response was the usual:

Hello dear buyer

This is not possible, if you have issue with our item or you are not satisfied with our item please return it and we refund your money

Thanks


Not possible. Humm. This made me question the intent of the dealer since he would not even try to defend the sale.

One of three possibilities

This left me with a faceted green glass and the seller telling me it was not possible. It also left me with three possibilities of what was going on:

1- The seller honestly did not know it was green glass and was going on what he was told by the GGEI Certificate of Authenticity, and/or
2. The seller sent a real emerald to the GGEI lab to get a report, then switched another glass stone for the sale and included the lab report of the real thing, and/or
3. The seller and GGEI Labs know full well that this is a scam they are pulling, and offer a refund if they are caught, counting on not getting caught in most of the cases. Thereby selling green glass as emeralds using these bogus certificates.

The normal way to match a gemstone to a certificate is by measurements. Gemstones will never have exact measurements to other gemstones if accurate measuring devices are used. So, if a gemstone measurement does not match the measurements of a certificate, then a stone is different from the one described in the certificate.

This issue is even spelled out in large letters on the back of the GGEI Certificate of Authenticity:

“GGIE will not held (sic) responsible for any other similar appearing specimen”

I found this rather odd. Why put this in unusually large letter on the back of the certificate? We will come back to this shortly.

My next step was to measure the stone to see if it was indeed of the same measurements as the certificate.

Certificate: 10.91 x 10.53 x 6.60 mm

My measurements using my A. D. Leveridge Gauge: 10.90 x 11.15 x 6.60 mm

Humm….very close but just enough off that the GGEI lab could claim it is not the same stone. They can invoke their disclaimer about “similar appearing specimen” and deflect the entire matter back to the dealer. For most investigations GGEI lab would be absolved and the dealer accused of switching. Game over….or is it?

Where experience takes over an investigation

I admit that I am pretty much the “Forrest Gump” of the gemology industry. I am just a small town guy who started out as a janitor for a Zale’s Jewelers in a little college town in North Texas, and over the years have been greatly blessed to find myself in the presence of some of the greatest names in this industry. Guys like Jules R. Sauer, Hans Stern, and Ken Bronkie Jr., all leaders in the emerald mining and marketing business throughout South America. I also had the honor of being Island Manager for a retail jewelry company called Colombian Emeralds International on the Dutch/French Caribbean island of Sint Maarten. Bottom line is that I know emeralds, and there was just something wrong here.

I searched further (Googled, actually) this situation and found other people who had encountered the same thing. Exact same thing. The exceptions were the dealers involved, there were many Indian eBay sellers involved, but only the GGIE lab supplied the certificates. It appeared that the GGIE was involved, and perhaps at the center, of this whole scheme but carefully orchestrated it to be what they must think is the perfect fraud. Which, of course, takes us back to the top of this report: “There is no perfect fraud. “ So, either the GGIE had found a way to commit the perfect fraud, or else there was something I was missing. And then it hit me…..!

The Epiphany

I was sitting at my desk holding the stone and it struck me….this was not a 10 carat emerald. (ok, 9.30ct). But it was not big enough to be a 10 carat emerald. I have held scores of 10 carat emeralds, and this was not one of them. It was half the size it should be. Looking at the Certificate of Authenticity the whole situation became perfectly clear. GGIE had faked this certificate using this piece of glass in their hand at the time. Here is how they did it and almost got away with it.

The Charles Carmona Factor

Charles Carmona is a brilliant gemologist who several years ago published a book: “The Complete Handbook of Gemstone Weight Estimation”. It sets forth all the formulas and variables needed to do accurate gemstone weight estimations using measurements. The weight estimation formula from Carmona’s book for emerald cut gemstones is as follows:

Length x width x depth x specific gravity + bulge factor = weight.

In an article published by the GIA in 1998, Carmona even showed an example that is REMARKABLY close to what we have here for an emerald of remarkably similar size and shape. It reads:

10.25 x 8.85 x 6.88 x 2.27 x .0027 +10% = 5.04 carats from “Estimating Weights of Mounted Colored Gemstones, Charles I. Carmona, GIA 1998.

I applied this same formula to the measurements from the GGIE. Let me say that again, these are GGIE measurements:

10.91 x 10.53 x 6.60 x 2.72 x .0027 +10% = 6.12 carats

Weight on GGIE Certificate: 9.30 carats


This is a 30% difference in weight. There is absolutely no way an accurate weight by measurement estimation is going to be 30% lower than the actual weight of a gemstone. Carmona’s equations have been published by the biggest names in the industry and have been tested and tried for decades. If GGIE had a real emerald of these dimensions, it would have weighed in the 6 carat range, not the 9 carat range.

Since the GGIE reported both the measurements and carat weight accurately, and these could not be an emerald, then the GGIE had this piece of glass in their hands when they certified it as natural emerald.

The Last Nail in the Coffin

The last piece of evidence to really nail this down was the photograph. Gem labs photograph gemstones. eBay dealers use photographs. The photograph of the gemstone on the certificate seen below is a direct scan from the GGIE certificate done here in the ISG office. Look at it carefully.

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Image scan of GGIE Certificate of Authenticity in the ISG office.

Now look at this image below taken from the actual eBay sale. It is the same photograph. The only difference is this one I pulled from their eBay page and is a 11 x 11 inch high resolution image. It is an original. The dealer obviously got this image of the glass or stone or whatever we are calling it from the GGIE lab. Same lighting, same reflections, same everything. And…..same chips.

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Below is a comparison of the image I took of this faceted glass (below right) to the actual image from GGIE (below left). Perfectly matching chips. Prima facie evidence that the faceted glass I have here is the same faceted glass in the hands of the Global Gemological Institute of Excellence when they issued this Certificate of Authenticity incorrectly identifying this as a natural emerald.

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Conclusion

The only two conclusions possible are (1) that the Global Gemological Institute of Excellence had this faceted green glass in their hands at the time the certificate was written. Or (2) the GGIE allowed this dealer to send them a photograph and the information and produced a Certificate of Authenticity for a gemstone they never saw. I personally go with #1. After communicating with the dealer I do not believe he has the knowledge to produce the information required.

For the measurements to be within hundredths of millimeters, and the carat weight reported by GGIE to be the exact weight as this glass, makes the case. The matching images seal the issue. It is not possible that GGIE tested and reported on an emerald of these measurements that weighed 9.30 carats. The only possible conclusion is that the GGIE lab knowingly certified this same piece of green faceted glass as a natural Colombian emerald and supplied the Certificate of Authenticity and original photograph taken when the certificate was produced, to the dealer knowing it was bogus. Or else they made such a huge miss-identification of this glass that they should not be doing gemological lab reports.

GGIE had to provide the accurate measurement or the hoax would be easily exposed.

GGIE had to provide the accurate carat weight or the hoax would be exposed.

GGIE had to produce an accurate photograph or the hoax would be exposed.

Adding them all together, they did not add up and instead served to prove malicious intent to defraud by either GGIE, the dealer or both.

This is where this fraud failed but continues operate since this is an ongoing hoax from this lab. Most consumers and dealers do not question the big labs but instead just trust what they are told and move one. This allows nefarious gem labs to perpetrate fraud on the industry on so many levels.

The problem is, there is always a place in the fraud where it fails. Which brings us back full circle.

There is no perfect fraud.

This is my opinion based on my investigation. I welcome Global Gemological Institute of Excellence to respond. I will publish in its entirety if they so choose.

Stay safe out there.

Robert James FGA, GG

President, International School of Gemology

Property and Casualty Adjuster, Texas Department of Insurance #1300433

Member, National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters

©2020 International School of Gemology. ALL RIGHTS RELEASED. We encourage sharing and caring throughout the industry as long as all copyrights are left intact.

ISG
International School of Gemology
PO Box 1727
Helotes, TX 78023
PinkDiamond
ISG Registered Gemologist


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