World’s largest uncut diamond denounced as fake
World’s largest uncut diamond denounced as
fake
The real deal
After more than a month of speculation, the “world’s largest diamond“, said to be twice the size of the famous Cullinan, was yesterday denounced as a “piece of plastic” by the man at the centre of the drama over its discovery.
A British property developer, Brett Jolly - who thought he was going to be fabulously rich as a result of the find - had come to Johannesburg earlier this week to “sort the matter out”. After something of a wild goose chase he had met the miners on a roadside, and they had presented him with what was claimed to be the 7,000-carat gem.
“They showed me a lump of plastic,” Mr Jolly said. “It was clearly, clearly a lump of plastic. There was no way in the world it was a diamond.”
He said the miners then produced a diamond tester. He said they had seemingly fixed it beforehand to give a positive reading, but forgot to take the cap off while they did the test, making a nonsense of the claim that the instrument showed it was a genuine diamond. “The cap was still on the bloody thing,” Mr Jolly said.
The Guardian reporter asked why he said he was waiting till Monday to turn these idiots in to the police?
He said: “Because I’m very, very tired.”
Posted: Sat - October 6, 2007 at 02:16 PM