Six more people have been arrested in relation to the hacking of
Gemological Institute of America (GIA) diamond-grading reports by
outside parties as the investigation into the case continues.
A total of eight arrests have now been made as a result of cooperation
between the GIA, the Indian authorities and Tata Consultancy Services
(TCS), the contractor that supports GIA databases, according to a GIA
statement January 26.
In another development, the GIA has extended its submission date for the
confirmation service for members of the trade concerned about the
validity of their grading reports by two months to March 31, 2016.
Members of the trade with a GIA report originally issued between
November 2014 and October 2015 who are concerned about its validity may
submit the original report and the referenced diamond to any GIA
location at no charge by the new deadline.
To date only 297 of 1,042 invalidated reports have been returned to the
GIA. As of November 26, only 175 of the reports had been returned and
two arrests had been made.
“It is imperative that all of the diamonds and their reports be returned
to GIA to remove the fraudulently altered reports from the market,” the
statement said.