Jeweler accused of promoting pretend work now charged with falsifying diamond gross sales

PROVO — A California jeweler already going through fees in Utah County accusing him of defrauding a lady by giving her pretend Monet and Van Gogh work is now accused of promoting lab-grown diamonds to no less than two different individuals after saying they had been pure diamonds.

William David Leavitt, 53, of Carlsbad, California, was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court docket in two separate circumstances with a complete of two counts of communications fraud and three counts of legal simulation, second-degree felonies.

Leavitt’s new fees come on the heels of being charged in February with one other depend of communications fraud and 5 counts of legal simulation, second-degree felonies. In that case, Leavitt is accused of defrauding a lady out of a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} by exchanging jewellery, watches and different objects for work he claimed had been genuine items of artwork by Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Claude Monet that turned out to be pretend.

Leavitt owns an vintage and property jewellery retailer in California and opened a jewellery retailer in Provo the place he employed others to run it.

Investigators say a person purchased a pair of earrings from Leavitt in June 2020 that he was informed had been pure diamonds.

“(The person) paid $10,700 for the earrings, however later discovered the diamonds had been lab-grown and never pure as represented by Leavitt. The lab-grown diamond earrings had been valued at solely $2,500,” in line with charging paperwork filed Tuesday.

The person additional informed investigators that he had bought “a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} of jewellery from Leavitt or his enterprise over the previous couple of years. (He) acknowledged he bought 15 items of jewellery that had been represented to him as being pure diamonds and priced as such,” however had been later decided to be lab-grown, in line with the fees. “(The person) additionally reported being defrauded as to the acquisition of the Winston Suite diamond wreath assortment.”

Leavitt informed the person the worth for the wreath assortment was $5 million, which the person then paid to Leavitt. The person later came upon the gathering worth was about $3.4 million and Leavitt pocketed the stability, the fees allege, including that the person additionally purchased 4 work from Leavitt which turned out to be pretend.

In June 2021, a second man bought greater than $54,000 in jewellery from Leavitt at a enterprise in Provo, in line with investigators. Then in August 2021, Leavitt reached out on to the identical man “about one other bracelet he had on the market that matched a diamond and earrings that he had bought from Leavitt in June” and in June 2022, the person and his spouse “bought over $170,000 in jewellery, to incorporate a pair of heart-shaped diamonds earrings and a ruby and diamond ring.”

However in November, a person who had been serving to Leavitt promote his jewellery on the Provo enterprise contacted the sufferer and informed him that “a number of of Leavitt’s purchasers had been offered pretend, or lab-grown diamonds” and that he ought to get the diamonds he purchased from Leavitt inspected, in line with the fees.

“Upon inspection, (the person) came upon the heart-shaped diamonds earrings he paid $58,000 for had been value roughly $12,000 and the ruby and diamond ring he paid $20,000 for was value roughly $5,000 as a consequence of containing lab-grown diamonds as a substitute of pure diamonds,” the fees state.