Kim Kardashian’s massive $4.5 million diamond ring that was stolen during the terrifying robbery in Paris on Monday, October 3, can be tracked — but expert Brett Stettner tells Us Weekly that the likelihood of recovering the diamond “is slim to none,” because the thieves will probably cut the diamond and resell it.
Stettner, chairman of Stettner Diamond Investments, who has worked closely with jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz, tells Us Weekly that if the five men who robbed Kardashian are part of a “sophisticated criminal enterprise, like the Pink Panthers, they will know how to remove the location numbers [a.k.a. tracking] from this diamond.”
The expert explains to Us that the diamond Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West, recently gifted her “is a GIA-certified stone,” meaning “there would be an engraving of a certification number placed on the diamond, upon request from the diamond dealer or trader … along the girdle of the diamond.”
Stettner confirms that Schwartz, who also designed Kardashian’s engagement ring, had the diamond engraved with a 15-digit identification code.
“The girdle is inscribed, by laser, to identify the stone,” Stettner explains. “When a diamond is stolen by sophisticated thieves, they have their own people in the underworld who are cutters. The cutter is not necessarily involved with the crime organization, but they are hired to recut the diamond.”
For example, Stettner tells Us, “the thieves would say their client wants a different shape and to recut the diamond to the client’s specifications,” meaning the ID number “will be removed in the cutting process.”
As previously reported by Us, the five men dressed as police officers who raided Kardashian’s Paris flat early Monday morning took off with the ring and millions of dollars in other jewels and one iPhone believed to belong to Kardashian.
Law enforcement confirmed to Us that they believe the suspects — who are still at large — are part of a “highly organized” gang who had done a great deal of planning before the robbery. A source close to Paris police previously told Us that officials also believe that this was an inside job.
“Detectives are satisfied that the robbers could have easily tricked their way into Kardashian’s apartment block, [but] it is not clear how they got into her actual flat,” the insider said on Tuesday. “The baffling part of the inquiry is how the robbers got into the apartment. Of course, it’s possible they tricked their way in, but at that time of the [early morning] it’s unclear who actually opened the door.”
Us previously confirmed that a male concierge was held up gunpoint and later tied up by the thieves, allowing them entrance into the luxury apartment building, but the investigation is ongoing.
