Frankel – Lipworth
FAX: FUGITIVE FRANKEL A FAILED FENCE
By Jesse Angelo
July 8, 1999 | 4:00am
Fugitive financier Martin Frankel tried to buy $30 million worth of diamonds from a New York dealer shortly before he fled the country.
The day his Greenwich, Conn. mansion went up in flames, Frankel sent a fax to Alan Lipworth of the Lipworth Diamond Corporation, saying he needed the stones by May 7.
Lipworth declined to sell him the cut diamonds because he feared it was a money-laundering scheme.
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That amount of diamonds would fill a large suitcase and they are easily exchangeable for cash in the diamond-trading centers of Antwerp or Tel Aviv.
Investigators believe Frankel – who has been charged with money laundering and wire fraud – raided the assets of small insurance companies he controlled and made off with at least $215 million and perhaps as much as $2 billion.
Frankel is believed to be on the lam in Europe and his lawyer declined to comment on the story.
In the fax, Frankel arrogantly boasts of his wealth but also reveals the panic he felt as insurance regulators started asking questions and his allegedly fraudulent scheme began to collapse.
“My desire to purchase the cut diamonds I described is very strong,” the fax read.
“I know that my purchase will push the market up but I do not care as much as most people about what to me are relatively small sums.”
He promised Lipworth his Swiss bank accounts had “ample funds” to cover the $30 million price tag and he could have the money wired to New York in a day.
“I need to purchase these diamonds no later than Friday May 7 if possible,” the fax said.
“I know this must seem eccentric, and I know others do not operate the way I do, but I know of no one else who routinely sends his assistants around the world on Gulfstreams when regular commercial airlines would be sufficient.
“Everyone who works for me receives the car and house or apartment of their choice.”
A spokesman for Lipworth confirmed the story and the details of the fax for The Post but the diamond dealer himself declined to be interviewed, citing safety concerns.
The fax to Lipworth came from Bloomfield Investments, a company Frankel allegedly set up in the British Virgin Islands.
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