Manhattan, NY – Two New York City diamond dealers have been convicted of staging a phony heist in hopes of claiming $7 million in insurance to save their failing business.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
A judge delivered his verdict Friday at the trial of Mahaveer Kankariya (kahn-kahr-EE’-yah) and Atul Shah.
The jewelers’ lawyers asserted the New Year’s Eve 2008 incident at Dialite Imports was a real robbery.
Authorities say the jewelers arranged to have two supposed robbers — disguised as Hasidic Jews — descend on the shop and then falsely claimed thieves had stolen millions of dollars’ worth of gems. Prosecutors say the conspirators tried to disable the store’s video-recording equipment by pouring drain cleaner on it, but it ended up storing incriminating images.
Well the fakes will be put in a real prison.