Diamond Dist. scam worth $2.6M alleged

A well-known Diamond District dealer was indicted Friday on charges that he persuaded a Manhattan wholesaler to give him more than $2.6 million worth of jewels to sell to Costco — but instead pawned and sold them, taking in far less cash than they were worth.

Nehal Modi told wholesaler Greg Sofiev whatever was necessary to make off with a steady stream of diamonds over a six-month period in 2015, prosecutors said at his Manhattan Supreme Court arraignment.

“Mr. Modi conned a Manhattan diamond wholesaler into fronting him millions worth of diamonds for a purported deal with Costco that never existed,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said in a statement.

“While diamonds may be forever, this flawed scheme was not, and now Mr. Modi will face the clarity of a New York Supreme Court indictment.”

Modi, 41, was charged with first-degree grand larceny and released without bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Sofiev, president of LLD Diamonds, had no reason not to trust Modi when he said he’d secured a lucrative deal with retail giant Costco, because Modi came from a wealthy family and operated several diamond companies, prosecutors said.

During three trips to Sofiev’s vaults at LLD Diamonds on Fifth Ave and W. 47th St. between March and August of 2015, Modi took millions of dollars worth of diamonds.

Court papers say Modi pawned many of the diamonds for short-term loans. Diamonds Modi didn’t pawn were sold at steep discount, the papers say.

“None of these diamonds were sold to Costco,” court papers state. When Modi fell short on payments, he “allayed suspicion by falsely telling [Sofiev] that these payment issues resulted from a ‘Costco fulfillment error,’” and he promised he’d front the bill.

When Sofiev realized Modi had pawned and sold the diamonds, he contacted the FBI.

“Out of the approximately $2.6 million worth of diamonds obtained by false pretenses from LLD, [Modi], to date, has only paid the victim just over $1.2 million for those diamonds,” court papers state.

Modi and Sofiev did not return requests for comment Friday.