$9M carat stew
Gangsters rounded up in diamond ripoff scam
TWELVE SUSPECTED Russian gangsters stole $9 million in diamonds from wholesalers in Midtown’s Diamond District, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The men used bad checks and false references to convince the 47th St. wholesalers to give them small, hard-to-track melee diamonds, officials said.
They then made excuses as to why the deal fell apart when the retailers demanded the small jewels or their money back.
The scheme began in 2015 and was recently uncovered by the FBI, court records show.
When a wholesaler confronted one of the accused men, Godel (Gary) Sezanayev, he replied, “Take me to court . . . I pay you when I feel like it,” according to the criminal complaint.
Sezanayev (photo below) even challenged his victims to take action, authorities said.
“Nobody can do s--- to me,” he said, according to the complaint.
“If I need, I f--- somebody if I want. A different way I can f--somebody . . . you will get your money when I am ready to pay,” he allegedly told one victim.
Another of the arrested gangsters tricked a diamond dealer who demanded cash on delivery.
When the dealer got to the suspect’s office, the alleged scammer handed over a duffel bag full of cash — promising it contained $522,330, court records show.
But the diamond dealer insisted on being paid with a certified check.
The suspect agreed and said he would be back in 15 minutes to get one — and told the dealer to hold onto the duffel bag for collateral.
He never say.
The dealer then searched the duffel bag and found a mere $12,300, authorities said. “The vast majority of the notes in the duffel bag were $1 bills, which had been stacked and concealed beneath $100 bills, and bound together with rubber bands,” the complaint says. returned, officials Those arrested included Mark Mullakandov, Albert Foozailov, Imanil (Eddy) Muratov, Manashe (Michael) Sezanayev, Nathan Itzchaki, Arkadiy Israilov, Ali Javidenezhad, Mark Natanzon, Sholom Muratov, Menachem Abramov and Nizadmuden Akbari.
They were all charged with wire and mail fraud. If convicted of the most serious offense, they each face 20 years in prison.
The were all released Wednesday after posting various amounts of bail.
“The defendants allegedly took advantage of an industrywide system of credit and trust to obtain largely untraceable diamonds, and then, using various allegedly illegal schemes, refused to pay,” said acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim.
Sezanayev surrendered his gun to authorities. He declined comment as he left the courthouse. A TEENAGE GIRL fell off the roof of a three-story Brooklyn building and broke her leg while running from police Wednesday, officials said.
Cops were called to the apartment building on 18th St. near Sixth Ave. in South Slope for a report of kids hanging out inside and on the roof around 10:45 a.m., authorities said.
When police arrived, they found the girl and three other teens on the roof, officials said.
“She thought she could run and jump to another building but she fell and broke her leg,” the police source said. “The other three stayed.”
Medics took the teen, only identified as a girl under 16, to NYU Lutheran Medical Center. POLICE ARE offering a $2,500 reward for information about the fiend who sent a foot-high Chihuahua hurtling down a Lower East Side garbage chute, officials said Wednesday.
Someone tossed Izzy, who is less than 4 years old, out with the trash inside a six-story apartment building on Jackson St. near Cherry St. — part of the Vladeck II Houses — at about 8:30 a.m. Friday.
A building maintenance worker found her in the trash compactor after he had a hunch to open it before turning it on. When he did, he found the poor pooch cowering inside.