Under the direction of an investigating judge, investigators are investigating whether the way in which HRD laboratories issue certificates leads to diamonds getting suspiciously higher values. A spokesperson for the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office says that a judicial investigation has been ongoing since the end of 2021, but does not want to comment further.
The investigation was started without publicity after a complaint with civil proceedings. That complaint was submitted by the former Turkish partner of HRD Antwerp, with whom the group broke off cooperation in October 2021 after about seven years.
According to De Tijd, leaked documents show, among other things, that HRD Antwerp was already excluded from the International Diamond Council (IDC) in July 2017, the body that sets internationally recognized standards to determine the value of diamonds as uniformly as possible all over the world. The IDC could no longer agree to the more flexible procedures that HRD Antwerp would use. Nevertheless, HRD Antwerp continued to state in its external communication until 2021 that it analyzed stones according to the international rules of the IDC.
The leaked documents also provide insight into the internal procedures that HRD Antwerp uses to certify diamonds.
