Compliance & Responsible Sourcing

Diamonds and precious metals are portable, valuable and difficult to trace, which makes them attractive to people whose interests are not legitimate. Every serious dealer therefore operates inside a compliance framework, and every serious seller benefits from it — because the same checks that deter a bad actor are what allow an honest seller to prove clean title and transact with confidence.

We would rather set out our obligations plainly than have them arrive as an unwelcome surprise at the point of sale.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was established in 2003 to prevent rough diamonds from financing armed conflict. It requires participating states to certify that shipments of rough diamonds are conflict-free, and prohibits trade with non-participants.

We have applied Kimberley Process certification to rough diamond transactions since its inception — ahead of local requirement — and we maintain written provenance records on every such transaction. We do not deal in goods we believe to be of conflict origin, and where provenance cannot be established to our satisfaction we decline, regardless of the value involved.

We apply the Responsible Jewellery Council’s Code of Practices to sourcing, human rights, labour standards and supply-chain due diligence across every category we trade — not diamonds alone, but coloured stones, gold and finished jewellery.

In practice this means knowing our counterparties, documenting the chain of custody where one exists, declining material from sources we cannot assess, and applying the same standard to a single stone as to a parcel.

As a dealer in precious metals and stones operating in the United Arab Emirates, we are subject to the federal anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing framework and to the requirements applicable to designated non-financial businesses and professions.

This obliges us to verify the identity of counterparties, to establish beneficial ownership where a corporate entity is involved, to understand the source of goods and funds above the applicable threshold, to maintain records for the statutory period, and to report suspicious transactions to the relevant authority. These obligations are not discretionary and cannot be waived by agreement.

For most transactions the requirements are straightforward, and we will tell you exactly what is needed before you travel or ship anything, so that nothing is wasted.

We check items against available loss and theft registers as a matter of routine, and we examine documentation with care. Where we have reasonable grounds for concern, we are obliged to report, and we will do so.

For an honest seller this process is entirely uneventful and adds little to the time a transaction takes. It exists to protect the market you are selling into, and the value of what you hold depends on that market remaining clean.

We trade laboratory-grown diamonds on a separate book from natural stones, and we disclose their nature at every stage without exception. A laboratory-grown diamond is never offered, quoted or sold as natural, and a natural diamond is never priced as laboratory-grown.

Where a stone’s origin is uncertain, we submit it for laboratory testing before quoting. Undisclosed laboratory-grown material entering the natural supply chain is one of the more serious integrity problems this trade currently faces, and we treat it accordingly.

If you have a concern about the provenance of an item, about a transaction, or about the conduct of anyone acting in our name, write to private.office@sayyidnajjar.com marked for the attention of the compliance principal. Every such communication is read by a principal of the firm and answered.