Arkansas Diamond FRAUD! Big Time!

Eric Blake has purchased diamonds from India, taken them to the "Crater of Diamonds" state park in Arkansas, "Found" these stones, registered them with the park, taken them and sold them on eBay and on his website.

Want to see all of the DAMNING evidence? It's pretty good...

Well, either Google Eric Blake, Diamonds
or
Hey Jolyon, can you post a link to fakeminerals below this message?

Great bit of investigative journalism there Justin,

Please everyone read this:

[fakeminerals.com]

Jolyon



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2008 03:10PM by Jolyon Ralph.

Hi Justin,

As the organizer of the AMT case on Arkansas Diamonds at Tucson (and co-author on the book chapter), I want to thank you for your research on this. This "situation" has been known for a while now to several people who stay current on news related to the Crater, but there was never any hard evidence.

These types of scams hurt the Park, the veteran (and honest) miners who work tirelessly to find these diamonds and the Murfreesboro community. I can assure you the Sate Park has been notified as well. Finally, let me assure everyone that none of the diamonds shown in the AMT case and book were connected in any way with Eric Blake.

Thanks! Jim

LOL...

"You get out of it what you put into it," said Eric Blake, 31, a carpenter from Wisconsin

How VERY true!

(see [diamondsnews.com])

Justin, great piece, congrats!

Phil.

I'm glad to see the 'spat' between Justin & Craig has been removed ... no place for such comments on this forum & Jolyon it sounded like you lost your cool english reserve too ! :0)

Thank you Justin for bring this scam to our attention.

For now I've removed messages. If it continues, I'll be forced to remove fingers with rusty scissors.

Jolyon

Darn! I miss all the good posts!

Dear Justin;
You are a HERO, on the magnitude of the investigators who busted the "Pithdown Man"; Some day I'll meet you & will consider it an HONOR to be able to shake your hand.
Humbly, Steve

You snooze you lose! Actually, it made me a bit uncomfortable to read those posts earlier today. So am glad they are gone too.


I saw that Eric's website is up and active, it also listed his email address. I take it he has no remorse over his actions?

Very interesting story, thanks Justin !Greedyness eeess so bad thing...

By the way, I'm just half out of topic. But are foreigners allowed to search at Diamond crater and other US open places of the same kind ?

cheers !

Aymeric

Piltdown!

Yes, Aymeric, in any national or state park in the USA, and every tourist has to pay the same entrance fee, regardless of nationality. (I myself get really pissed off in countries where they have one entrance price for natives and a much higher price for foreign tourists, a phenomenon I've observed in eastern Europe and some parts of Latin America.)

Hey Aymeric,

Indeed, I've NEVER gone to a national park without half of the people being from another country! So, come, enjoy America! It looks like lots of other places!

Everyone,

Thank you SO much for the great response! I'm so glad you all like it! Don't forget that I had an extra helper, my investigative reporter, plus, the indian dealer that released the information. He certainly didn't want any part of this scam!

Thanks!
Justin

PS, feel free to spread this far and wide, let's get it into the mainstream news.

Hi Justin,

I think it would be a good idea for you to write an article about your team's" research for Rock & Gem, Lost Treasure or Western & Eastern Treasure -- so that the wider treasure hunting community knows about it as well. It is a community that is likely to be loyal watchers of "Best Places to Find Cash & Treasures" and other such programs.

It's too bad that this stuff brings out both the best and worst in people.

Jim

Justin,

Best thing to do is track down every magazine online that printed the news report of his diamond find, and email the journalist who printed the story.

I'm sure a few of them will follow up on this.

Jolyon

Jolyon,

I see Eric still has a profile on Mindat: [www.mindat.org]

Will this be taken down?

Thx, Jim

I'm not sure. We should probably remove the diamond photos he has uploaded though.

Jolyon

I agree with the idea of removing his diamond photos. It is alarming that --despite him knowing that his fraud has been exposed -- his site is still active. He is clearly not taking this seriously, and he has hurt and continues to hurt the Park and the veteran miners who are honest and work harder than any of us know to find these rare stones.

Jim

Hello everyone! Geo-investigator Hal Guyot here.

Looks like I missed the action on here as well. But I'd like to give a word or two on how this all started.

I'm good friends with Malay Hirani of sonitools.com, and we chat a lot about diamonds. So one day, we were talking about arkansas diamonds and we were looking at Eric's site and Malay told me he had sent him two lots of diamonds. From there we pieced things together, along with the timing of events, and I contacted Justin since I love his site as well. And he wrote things up and broke it from there.

On a side note, Eric had bought the two lots of diamonds from Malay back in October on credit, and then stopped responding to Malay and changed his phone number so that he wouldn't have to pay. It wasn't till Malay hounded him this week that he made a partial payment of 2/5's the original bill.

So I think Malay deserves some thanks on all this as well. And he's got a great selection of Panna diamonds if you'd like one for your collection.

On to the next case! The curious case of the missing trilobites from britain...

Sounds like a movie plot - "One of our Trilobites is missing"

Now, if only someone could do a REAL investigation into the "Himmelfurst Silvers" - The explanations I've seen publically and the things I've heard in private don't tally up at all.

Jolyon

Eric's diamond photos deleted from mindat.

Jolyon

Thanks Guyot.. ! it was realy a coincidence of meeting with you at right time.

I think my loss is worth it, as this will save all the hardworking miners and their efforts.

Eric could have continued doing business with our company if he disclosed the origin of the diamond. Because it would have been still a profitable business. As these diamonds have same fire & luster.
But he choose to show it as Arkanasas diamond to increase his profit and our loss

Thanks Justin & Guyot..

Regards,
Malay

Bravo Justin!

You are the man! Now if we could just get to the bottom of the theft ring who is stealing minerals!

J, what do you think about putting stolen mineral photos as photos of the day??

KOR
E

Hello Justin,

What a brilliant piece of investigative work!!....Bravo to you!!

Cheers, Joe

Scientifically speaking, it's bad enough when people get localities wrong through geographical error, bad communication or vague labelling, but to deliberately attribute specimens to another locality shows a complete lack of any scientific integrity, and to do it for grossly enhanced profit is plain fraud; the actions of the lowest of the low.

I hope this is followed up as a criminal activity by the appropriate authorities.

Pete N.

Thanks to Justin and in particular to Guyot and to Malay Hirani for exposing this.

I don't normally do this as you know, but I think in this case Malay deserves it - so if you want to buy nice brown INDIAN Diamond crystals, then why not visit [www.sonitools.com]

Jolyon

As a collector of American diamonds, this one hits especially hard for me. I was familiar with his website and ebay selling. The newspaper stories about him would lead a person to believe he was legit. I'm glad I never did buy from him.

In the meantime, his website does encourage anyone to "contact him" with questions, so maybe I'll send him an email. Maybe if he gets a few, he might change his page.

Jen



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2008 02:48PM by Jennifer Nemitz.

Folks,

I did go ahead and email the Arkansas diamond website and received a reply in short order. He is defending himself and providing an alternate explanation. I'm reluctant to copy the reply directly into the board. If anyone is curious as to his explanation, I'm sure he would answer similar questions. I'll leave it up to you if you believe him. Please note I'm not taking sides - just was curious as to what his reply would be.

Jen

I contacted Eric as well. His explanation was as follows:

" This article has been completely blown out of context. I have never denied that I purchased diamonds from India. However, these diamonds were used in a necklace for a friend's wife, not brought into the Crater.

The article that mentions these stones is not very accurate. Yet, I should not be surprised when it is the sole purpose to look for anything to discredit. Ironically, Mr. Hirani is still selling the exact diamonds I supposedly registered at the Crater. This is an interesting fact. Much like many facts that were overlooked in writing this article.

As for my website and the e-bay posting, they are legitimate diamonds from the Crater. I'm sure you have taken a look at them, they are not the diamonds in the article. At this time I am trying to have all diamonds verified as originating from the Crater. When I have this, the appropriate actions will be taken against these slanderous authors.

Never was there any intention, nor did I ever market the diamonds I purchased from India as Arkansas Diamonds. I was simply doing a favor for a friend. This favor has cost me dearly as it seems."

Malay, do you have any records of the exact weights of the individual diamonds you sold to Eric? In the interest of fairness, I am interested in investigating the validity of any of the details that Eric has provided above.

Jim

Is there a way to prove diamonds come from a particular deposit? It may well be the Arkansas diamonds are different, but I thought there weren't any specific indicators that helped identify diamond sources scientifically (hence the problems with tracking 'conflict diamonds').

Jolyon

Jolyon,

As far as I know, there is no particular way to associate a diamond to a particular deposit. Some have tried using inclusions. Dr. Peter Heaney at Penn State is using a blue diamond's phosphorescence spectra to "fingerprint" specific diamonds. The purpose would be to identify stolen diamonds, even if they had been recut. He has fingerprinted all the blues in the Smithsonian. The research may be on the way towards identifying locality by comparing unknown locality spectra to known, but not there yet.

Jen

I should note that Eric has removed all 4 of the diamonds that we used for photo comparison...

Also, one of the diamonds even has matching inclusions and striations. Which I don't believe is a coincidence.

-Hal

Although there is a certain look to most AR diamonds that experienced collectors and dealers can recognize, there is no way to prove conclusively that a diamond came from the Crater of Diamonds. This is why people should buy only diamonds from rare localities from known, trusted sources.

Jim

Hey Jim,

Email me using my email on the article and I'll send you a smoking gun.

-Hal

Jolyon - it is funny how plentiful these silvers are these days....
I remember a German dealer/collector, Dr. Gebhardt, who, many years ago, came to the conclusion, that at least some of these could be old-time lab-grown "antiques" rather than natural specimens. at the time most people laughed about the idea (and still do), not taking this for serious (at least "officially". There was another guy who even described his methods how to GROW wires, I think it was in the Min.Rec. a few years ago(?), but I do not remember the issue.

I asked Eric Blake today for a photograph of this alleged necklace for which he claimed to have used the Indian diamonds. He stated one was forthcoming, but I have nothing yet.

I then asked him to provide a highly detailed description of the necklace in order to see if he would be able to give one and to see if this description matched any photograph received. In this way, he could not locate a random photo to meet his needs or prepare a necklace and then give a description.

Absolutely no response from him. He was quick to respond to earlier messages when he was defending himself in principle, but now is suddenly silent when he is asked for details in support of that defense.

Jim

Hey Jim,

Could you asked him out of what stone he cut this 2.09 ct pear cut or what's the certificate number?

[www.arkansasdiamondjewelry.com]

I'm curious
-Hal

I just visited his website, and 5 minutes later, EVERYTHING is gone. Here's his message to us:

"Due to recent allegations of Diamond " Salting " all diamonds have been removed from our website until they can be verified by an Independant Expert in Arkansas Diamonds. Check back for reposting when Inspection is complete.

Thank You"

Hehe, we got him good.

Regards,
David Aldridge

Hmm, according to public court records (from the state of Wisconsin court system web site) a Mr. Eric Blake, born 1975, has had a felony conviction for theft by fraud, and has repeatedly been found guilty of writing worthless checks. Could this be the very same Eric Blake, age 32, who made the news last year with his incredibly lucky diamond finds? Coincidence?

Dear forum members;
The phrase "oh, what tangled webs we weave;when at first we practice to deceive" is in FULL operation, here; if Eric Blake is checking this forum, be aware that all those e-mls you are sending are EVIDENCE & the excuses you are using WILL be checked out, to the fullest. Peter, that's not coincidence; that's a pattern of behavior. Whether those 4 realize it yet or not; this whole thing is about to come crashing down w/double digit stays at our friendly federally funded ENFORCED housing facilities. As he hasn't paid Mr. Hirani & isn't likely to, that means the State Dept. is likely to get involved, as well as international trade committee, &, since he used e-ml to order the parts for his scheme, international wire fraud. For here in the states, he'll be charged w/conspiracy (if he didn't sell any of them), interstate fraud (if he did), perpetrating a public hoax, damaging a public parks reputation (by getting those certificate, he's opened the park system to a serious loss of trust & reliability), in using the term "slanderous authors" he's opened himself to several lawsuits (small potatoes, as he'll NEVER be able to pay ANYTHING towards that except cigarette money; same for poor Malay) &, through his girlfriend being an accomplice, she stands to lose custody of her children.
Blake will have to answer for ALL the things he has used to cover & failure to produce a single item will mean severe consequences & foster total disbelief in the jury. I believe, once the investigation starts, he will NOT get ANY backing from the Park service as to possible authenticity & they MAY work EXTRA hard to find SOMETHING in those diamonds that ISN'T in ANY park diamonds. No, I don't know what it would be; but, there's BOUND to be something. Isotopes, inclusions, radio stuctural defects,anomalous spectra response, SOMETHING! More damning, he MUST produce specimens or receipts & that necklace, as he's mentioned them in the E-MLS! In covering his tracks as he backpedals, he's creating a wall of "disbelief" in his wake. I DO feel sorriest for his girlfriend (she walked in; she just didn't realize the FULL consequences to her FAMILY), who must SOON decide whether to turn state's evidence, in order to fashion SOME sort of visitation rights for her children; something better than what the feds generally grant. If she doesn't act soon, she be treated as a full participant & that means once a month visits, if she's lucky.
Your friend, Steve

Aww Steve! Don't make me start feeling sorry for the guy!

Ya, after this whole thing, I now believe in Karma. Part of it was that if Malay and I were never me and became friends in the first place, this would keep going on with only suspicions and no evidence. (Thank you google!)

I'm still wondering what arkansas diamond he cut his 2.09 ct pear cut diamond out of, haha.

-Hal

Hal,

He's not responding to anymore questions, so the mystery of the size of the rough diamond that cut the 2.09-ct stone he's offering will remain a secret.

I can tell you that it would need to be a VERY large crystal (for the locality) -- and of fine quality to yield that particular gem you saw. I have a near flawless 1.15-ct Crater diamond (heart shaped, you can see it in the AMT book chapter on AR diamonds) that was cut from a 4.14-ct piece of rough. Thus, the 2+ carat stone would probably have been on the order of 5-6+ carats and then very clean internally.

I know of very few Crater diamonds that would yield something like that, and all of those stones are either in private or museum collections. A documented cut AR diamond is a rare treasure indeed!

Jim

Sadly, everything that Steven just said above very well might come into fruition. Don't mess with Arkansas!

Ok, here is the FUNNY, FUNNY stuff. If you do a google search for the interior pages of his website, like the old wholesale section he took down immediatly on the first day of the story, well it is all in Google Cache, so we ALL have copies of his website, before he removed anything and they have already been forwarded over to the state of Arkansas.

He has said repeatedly that he is going to have the diamonds checked out, and guess what. A state represenative from Arkansas will be HAPPY to do that for him!

There are tons of things that I COULD say, but let's just leave that for later...=)

Ouch...Eric is a big time felon already. Ouch.

Ouch.

Google Wisconson Court System.

Ouch.

Ouch.

For some more fun, check out the metadata on some of the images off of the cached pages! Haha, he was quite careless there!

Regards,
David Aldridge

Metadata?

Please reply directly to the CON.

Too funny!

I have been interested in Crater diamonds for a few years now and have been looking them up wherever possible (including the AMT display). They seem to me to have an unique habit that to me seems different than other localities.
Do they at all resemble Indian diamonds? I am familiar w/ most african, russian, and Brazilian diamonds none of which look like those from Murfeesboro.

Hey Ronald,

The Panna diamonds actually do look more similar to Arkansas diamonds than any of the more productive diamond localities. They have smooth shapes, have a very similar smooth luster, have similar shape profiles, and come in brown, yellow, and white with great clarity. Go check out sonitools.com to see Malay Hirani's selection of Panna diamonds and judge for yourself.

- Hal

I think that the Panna mine is a Lamprolite deposit, like Murfreesboro. Most diamond deposits are kimberlite pipes, which produce the bulk of the world's diamonds. But the Murfreesboro and Panna Mine are both Lamprolite pipes. Interesting, is it not?

Apparently, people like diamonds. Defraud some diamonds, big trouble.
Scam some Azeztulite, nothing to be afraid of.
Well, people like diamonds!
Azeztulite, not so much.

Justin -

You Rock My Friend! Awesome work - kudos to you, Brandy, and Hal!

David -

I am curious, I can't find out what data you are gleaning from the metadata - I am dying to know. What does it say?

Jim -

Have you (or has anyone for that matter) heard back from him on any of the details you asked him?

[www.postcrescent.com]

Want to see some half stepping?

Unfortunatly, there is more to the story coming out each day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2008 09:40AM by Justin Butt.