PRESS RELEASE –

Contact: Shirley Staad-Rand

Dir. of Public Relations

International Diamond Brokerage

IDB Building

45 Bloor Street

Toronto, Canada 023 10897

(735) 090-9987

DIAMOND MARKET FLOODED WITH CLEVER IMITATIONS

31 May 1999 -- International Diamond Brokerage Chief Executive Officer, Niles Battencourt, warned today at an unscheduled press conference, that the Western Hemisphere diamond market has been infiltrated with counterfeit diamonds from an unknown source. Battencourt speculated that the faux diamond infiltration is the work of disreputable agents who want to drive down the market price of stones taken from the Sierra Leone fields and injure IDB in the marketplace.

Mr. Battencourt also announced that IDB would be issuing, free of charge, diamond inspection kits to uncover the fraudulent stones. Utilizing a new quantum scanning technology, the primary inspection tool, the Forbes Ultrascan, will allow reputable diamond wholesalers to assay and clear large numbers of stones without ever having to individually handle and inspect them.

In keeping with its policy of total satisfaction and value, Mr. Battencourt assured buyers and wholesalers, world wide, that if the results of a Forbes scan on IDB lots of diamonds now in their possession revealed any imitation stones, IDB would make full restitution with genuine, caret-for-caret gem replacements.

The imitation stones first were noticed two months ago in Montreal. Reports followed from New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Vancouver. A month ago, findings were reported in Caracas, Rio De Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Experts in those cities, after examining the imitation diamonds, said the stones were near perfect in their clarity and color and would easily be undetected by most diamond merchants.

Mr. Battencourt concluded the press conference by declaring IDB’s detection resources are ready to assist international authorities in tracking down the responsible parties, apprehending them and bringing them to answer to the law for their crime.

-- IDB --