Custody battle begins for boulder-sized €300m emerald

THE curious case of an enormous emerald weighing as much as a horse was destined for a Los Angeles courtroom last night as a judge tried to determine who owns it.

The emerald has been lugged across hemispheres, claimed by more than a dozen different parties, including a hurricane, gone missing for years at a time and is, needless to say, already the subject of folklore and urban legend.

Dug up in Brazil in 2001 and tipping the scales at 840lb, the boulder-sized Bahia Emerald is one of the largest gems ever discovered.

Several people have laid claim to the hulking rock throughout the years, and a small army of lawyers will cramming into a tiny downtown courtroom yesterday where Superior Court Judge John A Kronstadt was to review the case of the man who says he bought it first.

Tony Thomas has said he purchased the emerald from a Brazilian gem dealer for $60,000 (€45,000) shortly after it was excavated. Its worth has since been appraised at almost $400 million (€300m).

After he arranged to have it shipped home, Thomas says he was tricked into believing the emerald was stolen so it could be sold to someone else for more money.

He says it vanished after he turned it over to people who were supposed to ship it to him and, now that it has been found, it should be returned to him.

The case will be weighed from the bench by Judge Kronstadt without a jury, and he will listen to oral arguments about Thomas’s claim.

Lawyers for other interested parties have argued the claim should be dismissed because the emerald was never delivered to Thomas, but his lawyer says Thomas did take possession of the emerald in Brazil before it disappeared.

The judge will review other claims later.

After it vanished, the gem’s journey became muddled. At one point, it wound up in a warehouse in New Orleans which was flooded during Hurricane Katrina.

Among those claiming ownership is a man who says he was retained by the Brazilian owners to sell it.

Another claimant says he received it from a gem dealer as collateral for a shipment of diamonds he paid for but never received. He was trying to sell the gem in Las Vegas when authorities seized it.

The County Sheriff’s Department has the emerald under lock and key.