Six more people have been arrested in relation to the hacking of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) diamond-grading reports.
A total of eight arrests have now been made in the ongoing investigation. This comes as a result of co-operation between the GIA, the Indian authorities and Tata Consultancy Services, the contractor that supports GIA databases.
The GIA has also extended its submission date for its confirmation service for those concerned about the validity of their grading reports. Now, industry members with a GIA report originally issued between November 2014 and October 2015 who are concerned about its validity may submit the original report and the referenced diamond to any GIA location at no charge by March 31, 2016.
To date, only 297 of 1,042 invalidated reports have been returned.
“It is imperative that all of the diamonds and their reports be returned to GIA to remove the fraudulently altered reports from the market,” said the organization in a statement. CJ
