By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-13 23:39:44 | Updated at 2024-12-14 01:26:29
2 hours ago
How an 836-pound ‘cursed’ emerald traveled the Americas, ruining lives and bankrupting men
Los Angeles Times ^ | Dec. 13, 2024 3 AM PT | Clara Harter
Posted on 12/13/2024 3:26:08 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
It was an ordinary day at his Los Angeles law office when John Nadolenco opened a letter from Brazil enlisting his help in a mission to retrieve a stolen, and quite possibly cursed, 836-pound emerald.
The year was 2014, the heyday of the Nigerian prince email scam, and the up-and-coming attorney was no fool. “I immediately thought it was just completely fake, a total hoax,” he said. “I was like, ‘I’m not falling for this one. I’m smarter than this.’”
He tossed the letter in the trash.
But Nadolenco’s boss asked if, as a favor, he could look into the Indiana Jones-esque request to reclaim the Bahia Emerald. So Nadolenco skeptically reached out to a colleague in his firm’s Brazil office.
He was flabbergasted to learn that not only was the Bahia Emerald real, but the Brazilian government was genuinely interested in using his legal skills to retrieve the gem, which was being held in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s custody amid lawsuits over its ownership.
The emerald had been plucked from a mine in the Carnaíba mountain range, located in the Bahia region of northeastern Brazil.
“Bahia Emerald” is a misnomer because it is not one gem but nine dazzling crystals encased in a rough black rock 30 inches wide and 33 inches high. Each crystal is as thick as a Coke bottle, and one is believed to be the largest single emerald ever found.
But how did the stone, which weighs about as much as a full-grown bison, end up in L.A. County? And how could Brazil get it back? It was Nadolenco’s mission to find out.
The stone, he learned, was smuggled to the U.S. in 2005, and a series of lamentable tales — some fact, some fiction — have followed...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
To: E. Pluribus Unum
Hell, lots of 1 carat diamonds wreak that kind of havoc.
2 posted on 12/13/2024 3:31:04 PM PST by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
To: E. Pluribus Unum
Atty Nadolenco almost took the existence of that giant emerald
for granite!
3 posted on 12/13/2024 3:35:07 PM PST by lee martell
To: gundog
Hell, lots of 1 carat diamonds wreak that kind of havoc.
They are a girl's best friend.
4 posted on 12/13/2024 3:37:46 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
To: E. Pluribus Unum
His boss goes through his trash?
5 posted on 12/13/2024 3:38:37 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson
