Rubious but dubious

Dealer sold me 888G in fakes: tourist

A tourist visiting New York from Hong Kong was duped into buying fake ruby-encrusted jewelry for nearly $1 million from a Diamond District dealer, according to a new lawsuit.

Eva Ho made the three purchases at Design by Gems on West 47th Street in May, her lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court says.

She selected what she thought was a 12.77-carat ruby ring surrounded by diamonds (inset) for $350,000, a necklace adorned with 11 rubies and diamonds for another $350,000, and a vintage genuine Van Cleef Arpels bracelet for $188,000.

Each piece came with a purported certificate of authenticity from the American Gemological Laboratories stating that the rubies were “genuine Burmese stones,” according to court papers.

The gem dealers “expressly and unambiguously described the goods they were selling to [Ho] as genuine, original, authentic and of a specific quality,” the suit says.

Ho had some suspicions that they were not real and later discovered that the pieces were “valueless composites” of rubies from East Africa with heat treatment and lead glass clarity enhancement, her suit says.

Her attorney described how Ho discovered she’d been duped.

“The president of [the American Gemological Laboratories] confirmed that the AGL certificates provided to our client with her purchases were in fact never issued by AGL, and were fabricated,” Ho’s lawyer Gregory Galterio told The Post.

“Additionally, we asked AGL to inspect the ruby ring and issue an authentic certificate. The authen- tic certificate reveals that the ruby is not of Burmese origin and is not free from heat treatment, as was falsely stated in the fabricated AGL certificate,” Galterio said.

“Instead, it is a ‘composite’ stone of inferior quality and nominal value,” he explained.

Ho filed suit only after the dealer refused to refund her money. She is suing to recoup the $888,000 plus $1 million in punitive damages.

Design By Gems owner Gina Mims declined to comment.

Ho’s incident is the third time in three months that customers have reported being scammed in Manhattan’s famed Diamond District.