AsylumGuido

Also, take under consideration that this article is on TMZ.com which is well known for sensationalism.

st thomas

Thank u

SmashMouth

Drew Brees seeks $9 million in damages from San Diego jeweler: lawsuit | NOLA.com

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...-spent-jewelry

AsylumGuido

Drew Brees on dealings with jeweler he's suing: 'In the end it was all a scam'

A day after news broke that Drew Brees and his wife, Brittany, are suing a California jeweler, the New Orleans Saints quarterback has released a statement to TMZ.com detailing how the couple's business relationship with the jeweler allegedly turned out to be "all a scam."

Brees and his wife leveled allegations in a 29-page lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego against Vahid Moradi, who runs CJ Charles Jewelers in San Diego and once supposedly told Brees that he was like a member of his family.

Brees is accusing a California jeweler he met early in his NFL career of conning him out of $9 million over the years by badly overcharging the star New Orleans Saints quarterback for diamonds.

"From 2010 to 2016, Moradi advised [my wife and I] to allocate funds into an alternative asset class of investment grade diamonds and told us that he would use his connections and expertise to acquire them on our behalf at or below market value," the statement says.

"In an effort to diversify our investment portfolio, we trusted Moradi and invested. Moradi assured us he was being compensated by the sellers for any investment grade diamonds he acquired on our behalf."

On Tuesday, Moradi's attorney, Eric George, denied any wrongdoing by his client, saying Brees "aggressively purchased" diamonds — including an $8 million ring — whose worth just didn't increase in value as quickly as he wanted.

"Mr. Brees ... should restrict his game-playing to the football field and refrain from bullying honest, hard-working businessmen like my client," George said.

Trouble began in early 2017, when — during a routine review — the Breeses' financial adviser recommended that the couple have an independent appraiser evaluate their investment diamonds.

That expert said the couple had paid $9 million more than the diamonds were actually worth, according to the lawsuit. The expert said the $8.2 million ring was worth about $3.6 million.

The lawsuit claims the 11-time Pro Bowler confronted Moradi about the discrepancy, and the jeweler admitted to charging "a substantial markup" but also argued that the market at the moment was as "weak as it has ever been."

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By all indications here it is as I thought. This Moradi dude misrepresented the value of the jewelry. The fact that an "independent" appraiser was called in implies that Moradi had indeed supplied the original appraisal (a very common practice as I mentioned earlier) and had signified an inflated figure to cover his bilking.

This should destroy Moradi's reputation and rightly so. This is the very reason why most original appraisals are trusted because if they were not accurate the jeweler would would suffer loss of business.

And also note that nothing is mentioned about any lack of cash flow. He just received a check worth $10.5 million as his signing bonus from the Saints.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill