2014-07-01
ANTWERP - Smuggling, fraud and tax evasion have been the order of the day in the diamond business in Antwerp for decades. The diamond merchants in the 'Square Mile' are living in a vacuum, in a social and judicial bubble that is sustained in part because of the cooperation of politicians and magistrates.
The most recent series of scandals concerning diamond giant Omega Diamonds, valuables transport company Monstrey Worldwide Services and the Swiss HSBC bank accounts prove that the end is still a long way off. Time and time again diamond merchants try to stay a step ahead of justice and taxation with new constructions of fraud and alternative smuggling routes. And if they can't beat the law, they bend it by having politicians write it to match their needs.
In Black Diamond, 50 years of fraud, deception and tax evasion in the Belgian diamond sector Raf Sauviller and Salvatore Di Rosa shed a light on these and other nasty affairs that branch out from the Antwerp diamond centre to Dubai's secretive diamond tower.
Supported
€5,100 allocated on 13/09/2012ID
FPD/2012/980Grant
BOOK (in Dutch)
- Title: Zwarte diamant
Subtitle: 50 jaar fraude, bedrog en belastingontduiking in de Belgische diamantsector
Authors: Raf Sauviller and Salvatore Di Rosa
Publisher: Van Halewyck
Number of pages: 288
Price: € 22.5
ISBN: 9789461313133
Publication date: 28 June 2014
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