Legal battle over fraudulent diamond investment deal comes to light

Arbitrator finds S'porean defrauded investor over value of 'fancy vivid blue' diamond ring

- Joyce Lim

A three-year-long legal battle involving Singaporean Karan Chandur Tilani and a fraudulent multi-million-dollar diamond investment deal has been made public after the Court of Appeal recently dismissed his bid to keep court records confidential.

The documents detail an arbitration case where the judge found that Mr Tilani, 32, had defrauded an investor over the value of a 2.08 carat "fancy vivid blue" diamond ring, and ordered that damages amounting to about $2.38 million be paid as compensation.

The arbitrator, Justice Lai Siu Chiu, found that Mr Tilani had made false claims about the diamond ring that was named after British-born actress Jane Seymour, including that the "Jane Seymour diamond" was naturally mined and worth around $13.8 million.

Court papers noted those false claims were the basis for Dutch investor Maarten Hein Bernard Koedijk's decision to enter into a number of deals with Mr Tilani.

Justice Lai found that the diamond was synthetic and that Mr Tilani had bought it off the shelf for US$19,136 (S$25,700).

The legal dispute began in 2021 when Mr Tilani, who is a director and former majority shareholder of Fantastic Xperience (FXPL), sold nearly 50 per cent of the company's shares to Mr Koedijk.

For the transaction, Mr Tilani said he received $648,601 in cash from Mr Koedijk, and accepted part of the payment in cryptocurrency, valued at $2 million.

Mr Tilani claimed that Mr Koedijk owed him an outstanding $339,659, which he refused to pay. This prompted the Singaporean to begin arbitration proceedings.

Mr Koedijk countered by asserting that the deal was not an outright purchase of the company's shares.

Instead, he said Mr Tilani had proposed a fractional ownership investment scheme to him and other investors, where they could own a certain percentage of the Jane Seymour diamond ring at an agreed price.