Who Owns 840-Pound Hot Rock Worth Up to $400M?
The first call to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department about an 840-pound emerald came from Larry Biegler in September. The giant gemstone, which he said was worth some $400 million, had been stolen from a local warehouse, he contended.
But as authorities investigated, the case became ever more convoluted. Two businessmen in Idaho say they picked up the emerald from the warehouse because they had a legal right to do so: Biegler allegedly pledged it in exchange for a $1 million payment for diamonds that the two say they never received. Biegler, however, says he completed the diamond deal but the two buyers never paid an agreed $80 million purchase price for the emerald, recounts the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, two other men also are now claiming to own the giant gemstone. Tomorrow, a Los Angeles judge is going to start trying to determine the true owner. An outside expert tells the newspaper that it could be worth far less than $80 million.
Because the actual owner isn’t yet determined, the sheriff’s department has taken custody of the hot rock. To do so, officers drove to Las Vegas, where the Idaho men had left it for safekeeping in a secured warehouse, and they weren’t taking any chances.
En route to Nevada, Lt. Thomas Grubb, who is in charge of the investigative team, told his deputies to eat hearty when they stopped for breakfast: “We’re going to pick up a $400 million piece of evidence,” he said. “On the way back, we’re not stopping.”
