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John Lee, who has a mailing address on Route 17 in Paramus, met his alleged victim on a website called Purple Garden, where he posed as a "love expert" under the username 1111Giovanni1111, federal prosecutors said in court papers filed in Florida.
Lee, of Davenport, FL, convinced his victim — who worked for a wealthy individual in Qatar — to send him jewelry to be cleansed of bad spirits in June 2022, the documents say.
Lee returned the jewelry, but the victim said he still was having negative feelings, and so Lee convinced him to send the jewels again — and this time he recommended sending his boss' jewels, prosecutors say. The victim apparently swiped the jewelry from his employer's safe and mailed them that August to Lee's addresses in Davenport and Paramus.
This time, Lee didn't return the jewelry. He said he would, if he met the victim in Cannes, France, but Lee never showed and then stopped responding to his client nearly altogether, federal officials said.
That is, save for a text message on Aug. 23 that said, “Please stop I do not know what you were talking about I don’t think you need a psychic you need a psychiatrist God bless you please stop harassing me," court papers said.
Lee's victim fessed up to his boss and reported the thefts to authorities, prompting an FBI investigation.
According to the New York Post, Lee was arrested in New Jersey and charged with wire and mail fraud charges.
The pink diamond ultimately wound up at Christie's and was set to be auctioned off — that is, until the FBI tracked it down and pulled it, The Post says.
In a separate suit, jeweler Zaki Salame says he between $2 and $3 million, as he believed the stone belonged to a jeweler in Long Branch, and that a Brooklyn man convinced him to buy an eighth interest in the stone.
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