Classic heist: a woman stole millions of diamonds through a hoax exchange scam

This was written in the British newspaper The Guardian, after a court hearing.

Russian Israeli and London in Monaco

The alleged burglary, the woman herself denies all undertones, took place in early 2016. An Israeli man knocked on the door of the president of the Boodles jewelry house, because he wanted to buy some expensive diamonds.

Apparently, after a month in fashionable Monaco, the guys agreed to conclude the deal with the Russian business partner “Alexander”. Before that, the “buyer” wanted to take an expert look at the gemstones at the merchandise.

swap trick

And this is where Lulu Lakatos came into the picture. Or as I imagined: Anna. Some time after the meeting in Monaco, she was allowed to inspect the diamonds in the Boodles’ basement in London. The diamonds were placed in boxes, then returned to a case, after which the case was sealed, the newspaper wrote.

At that moment, the employer was called to receive a phone call. Alexander called only then, you will always see. What happened next is not entirely clear, but it appears that at the time, despite one employee still in the room, Lulu replaced the pencil with a similar one. But without diamonds, of course.

pebbles

Diamond dealers still smell danger. The owner told the judge he had felt the case for a while, but nothing seemed to be wrong. And when the sealed bag was put under an X-ray a day later, just to be sure, it looked like it contained diamonds at the end.

However, the mistrust did not go away. When the bag was opened, the fraud was revealed. Diamonds have been replaced by pebbles.

Get out of England soon

By now Anna had flown long and wide distances. The investigation revealed that as soon as she left the store, she immediately put a pencil case in another woman’s bag. Moments later, she was out of the country on the Eurostar train.

She was arrested last year in France and later extradited.