Canadian Diamond Traders

Over 1000 people fell victims to Diamond fraudsters. In Gdansk alone over 100 people believed in promises of easy money. Some lost over $50,000 U.S. dollars. Police and the public prosecutor prosecuting this case estimate that three fraudsters might have collected way over one million dollars. All three of them got arrested thanks to private detective Krzysztof Rutkowski.

Dia-Monde Corp. started their activities in Poland in 2006, according to announcements contained in glossy fliers and brochures – they intended to invest money in marketing of diamonds. Depending on selected investment program it was enough to deposit 120 or 640 dollars to receive in a short period of time triple the invested amount and as a bonus gem stone worth couple hundred dollars.

The mechanism of the company’s operation was very simple. It was nothing more than a financial pyramid. Potential investors, in addition to investing their cash in diamond funds, could also convince other people to join in the investment structure. This would promote them in the hierarchy of the investment pyramid. The higher the position, they attained the more money they would earn.

This simple system worked very well. In the short time the ranks of investors in Dia-Monde Corp., included residents of the following cities – first Warsaw, and than Gdansk, Poznan, Szczecin, Wroclaw and more recently, also Krakow.

In the beginning everything looked very professional. We received information from the company regarding our investments. Numerous meetings were held, in addition to the money promised some of also received certified Canadian diamonds – explains Ms Halina, one of the deceived residents of Gdansk – First I invested $120, and after three months I received, the first money about 300 dollars. I re-invested all that money. Yes, and after that I did it again – she adds.

Precisely in order to not lose out on the repetitiveness of the “opportunity, fraudsters were offering the possibility of reinvestment, or re-deposit of payments. The idea turned out to be “shot in the arm”, as customers enticed by first payments invested higher and higher amounts of money. Some took out loans of tens of thousands of dollars at several banks on pledges of future profits they were sure they would collect while others used up lines of credit

However, in recent months the pyramid scheme created by Witold P. (A Pole with Canadian citizenship) and Vitaly T. Ukrainian began to wobble on its foundations. Customers of Dia-Monde Corp stopped receiving payments. Quite a few of them, smelling the fraud, hired a detective Krzysztof Rutkowski. His office quickly investigated the company, as well as its major shareholders.

It was found that P. Witold bought diamonds by kilograms in Dubai. The value of one, instead of several hundred was worth only about 25 dollars. His associates illegally imported them into Poland. Money paid in by their clients was never invested for them anywhere. It was one big fraud, from beginning to end; a cleverly devised Detective Rutkowski explains.

Thanks to gullibility of their victims, for the last two years Witold Popiel lived like a king. He purchased an apartment in Dubai and a new house in Canada. On 22 July his crooked ways came to an abrupt end.

People from the detective agency came to the office. An hour later the police showed up. On the same day the first of several reports alleging criminal offences against the owner and employees of Dia-Monde Corporation were filed at one of Warsaw’s police stations. The case was taken over by the Warsaw Metropolitan District Public Prosecutor’s Office. Any Polish “investors” who were deceived are asked to direct all further communication to that office. Popiel and his associates are under police supervision. No one at dia-Monde Corporation could be contacted.

On Thursday, in the Teachers House, Uphagena Street, Wrzeszcz, there was a meeting between deceived Gdansk victims and detective Rutkowski. Dozens of victims are preparing a common complaint about the offence, which in all likelihood, will be sent to the Warsaw public prosecutor’s office, sometime this week.