De Beers Court Date Postponed

On March 11th, De Beers was scheduled to appear in Federal Court in Columbus Ohio, to plead guilty to antitrust indictments regarding the price fixing of industrial diamonds.

The plea bargain to the decade old indictments was seen to be the first step by De Beers in an effort to resolve outstanding legal issues with the U.S. Justice Department, facilitating a re-entry by De Beers into the U.S. after a 50-year absence.

Yesterday though (March 9th), the court hearing was suddenly adjourned, with no future date set as to when the hearing will take place.

According to a De Beers’ spokesman the presiding judge had requested more time in order to gather further information and pre-trial documentation. “The postponement is simply due diligence on behalf of the court. This is all part of the legal process.”

It will probably be a further three to four months until a new hearing date is set, not good news for De Beers who were expected on Thursday to receive the court’s approval to the pre-negotiated plea bargain.

The indictments date back to a 1994 lawsuit that was filed against De Beers and General Electric for a global conspiracy of price fixing. The charges against GE were dismissed, but the charges still stood against De Beers since the company declined to stand trial.