High-Tech GIA Gemologists Help Snag Diamond Thieves Worldwide

The FBI, Scotland Yard, and other U.S. and international law enforcement agencies have turned to GIA, the world’s foremost authority in gemology, for expert assistance in solving multi-million dollar diamond heists in the U.S. and abroad.

GIA’s highly trained gemologists recently aided Scotland Yard in solving the case of a diamond robbery valued at $15–$20 million. Several of the stolen diamonds were submitted to the GIA  Laboratory, where the vast majority of the world’s diamonds are graded. The diamonds were quickly identified when GIA Laboratory personnel used gemological identification and a high-tech computer system to match their identification with data on diamonds reported to have been stolen.

In another case several years ago, a Florida man, who was already under FBI investigation for defrauding pro-golfers Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman, sold a diamond he had nabbed. He was similarly apprehended after the stone was submitted to the GIA  Laboratory for grading. Since the diamond was previously evaluated by GIA, it was tracked during the identification process, and FBI agents were able to trace it back to their suspect. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

GIA uses many recorded factors, such as the diamond’s weight, measurements, proportions, polish, symmetry, color, clarity and fluorescence to provide much of the information required for GIA to calculate potential matches to other diamonds in the GIA  Laboratory’s database. GIA’s computer processors perform algorithms to compare some or all of these characteristics with those of diamonds previously identified in the database as lost or stolen.

One very interesting aspect of this process involves using specific clarity characteristics found in the diamond. Just like humans, every diamond has an individual “fingerprint,” and the crime-solving process intensifies when the Institute’s renowned laboratory experts analyze a diamond for grading. Using high-tech instruments and computer systems, GIA records the size, nature, number, position, color, and alignment/orientation of clarity characteristics unique to each diamond during the grading process.

If examination of the suspicious diamond shows that it matches one in GIA's records, the evidence can be – and often is – used in court to convict diamond thieves.

GIA created the International Diamond Grading System™ that is now recognized as the standard by virtually every professional jeweler and diamantaire in the world, as well as the public.