De Beers and the Mafia

In my last post I talked about “the syndicate” and how De Beers is a major player, if not the largest one in the game. I said how it was similar to some characteristics of the Mafia. Well here’s one more similarity, and one that deals directly with the ugly hidden side of De Beers. Here’s an excerpt from Campbell’s book:

“De Beers itself is treated almost like an organized crime operation in the United States; it’s barred from doing any business in America because it’s considered to be in violation of U.S. antitrust laws, which seek to prevent price fixing.” Controlling the number of diamonds that are released into the market from an enormous supply (mostly obtained from rebels in Africa…I will go into that later) is exactly like price fixing. In 2000, it was actually illegal for more than three executives from De Beers to be in America at once. Now that to me sounds like it is a trust worthy and admirable company. Ha ha. Too bad this doesn’t keep De Beers from doing business.