He’s down 150G thanks to goons
A Diamond District merchant apparently fell victim to the gang of armed robbers targeting patrons of trendy New York City nightspots — when he was stripped of about $150,000 worth of jewelry at gunpoint while leaving Manhattan’s famed Buddha-Bar.
Maksud Agadjani, the owner of TraxNYC, told The Post on Monday that he was wearing three diamond-and-sapphire chains, a diamond pendant, three diamond bracelets and a diamondencrusted Rolex watch at the time of the stickup, which is under investigation by the NYPD.
“Some of it was for clients. Some of it was my personal jewelry. I just wanted to have a fun night, have my jewelry on me, do my thing,” he said.
“When you’re a jeweler and people see you and you don’t have jewelry on, it’s somewhat strange.”
Agadjani, 35, who also played a jewelry dealer in the 2019 Diamond District thriller “Uncut Gems,” said he’d finished a business dinner at Buddha-Bar and was heading to his Audi SQ5 SUV, parked on the street nearby, when he was robbed Thursday night.
“They came from around the corner, two guys with two guns,” he said. “They popped out of nowhere.”
One of the crooks “cocked his pistol and ran up on me like he was going to assassinate me,” Agadjani recalled.
“He said, ‘Don’t make any noise. Take everything off.’ They both kind of huddled around me, and I gave it to them,” he said.
“If I’d resisted, who knows what would have happened? But I have insurance. I don’t pay for insurance to battle people on the street.”
Agadjani said he pleaded with the robbers to let him keep a gold Star of David medallion on a chain that he’s had since age 7.
They briefly argued over the request before relenting, he said.
Agadjani theorized that the robbers targeted him because of his popular Instagram account, where he had posted a photo of himself dining at Buddha-Bar to his 845,000 followers.
“They’re watching these people’s Instagram. They’re watching all the celebrities. They’re watching for them to slip up, to show up somewhere,” he said.
“They’re waiting, and they’re watching, and they’re doing stickups.”