One man claims to have lost between $2.5 million and $3 million. A regular customer says has been bilked out of about $450,000. A third man is a family friend who says he has lost about $3 million.
All three claim they are victims of a 58-year-old Detroit-area jeweler who has been arrested and charged with federal wire fraud.
The owner and namesake of Joseph DuMouchelle Fine & Estate Jewelry Sellers is accused of defrauding the three men in a complicated scheme that includes the purchase of a dazzling $12 million Texas ring that features a 77-carat jewel known as The Yellow Rose Diamond.
The family friend who says he lost $3 million claims that he and DuMouchelle bought the Yellow Rose together from an estate. He says DuMouchelle promised him 75 percent of the profits in the deal.
The ring eventually sold for $16 million, but the family friend says he never got his share of the profits.
The regular customer claims he was offered the ring at a discount, but declined the offer. He says he is owed profits from past transactions with the Birmingham jeweler.
According to a news report, the jeweler is also going through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The report also states that the jeweler sent the family friend an email about how to wire funds to a bank for the purchase of the Yellow Rose. The account reportedly actually belonged to the jeweler and his wife.
After the transfer, the jeweler reportedly sent the friend a receipt for the Yellow Rose’s purchase.
The third man – he claims to have lost from $2.5 million to $3 million – is a resident of Texas who claims DuMouchelle was keeping items that had been provided to be sold. He was handling the sale of the Yellow Rose.
DuMouchelle reportedly had about $12.5 million of the Texas man’s items by the end of last year, but in February he returned some of them as well as a $4.25 million wire transfer for merchandise that had been sold. The Texan says he’s still owed about $3 million.
According to the criminal complaint, the $4.25 million wire was actually from the money sent by the family friend for the purchase of the Yellow Rose.
The Texan said he never gave the Yellow Rose to DuMouchelle and never agreed to sell it to him.
Complicated? Yes. High-finance deals are often complex matters with many moving parts. That is why it is important to discuss evidence and allegations with a criminal defense attorney before talking to investigators or prosecutors.
