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  • Fake Charoite being sold far and wide
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UPDATE
Does anyone own a piece of this material? Please e-mail me at Justin@the-vug.com so you can do a few simple tests to it, to prove what it actually is, Charoite, Fluorite, or something else. That is to say, I’m POSITIVE it is not Charoite, but I would like a non-partial judge to carry out the tests.

I was alerted to this fraud by a reader of FakeMinerals.com. I’m so glad too, because this is a horrible scam that needs to be squashed right away.

Let me not assume you are already an expert in Charoite. Here is the nitty gritty about REAL Charoite.
Charoite is but one mineral in the famous lapidary rough mixture from Russia. I first saw this material at the Smithsonian before I even started collecting minerals and it made a huge impression on me. The bold deep purple of the Charoite mixed with the ghostly white Quartz, deep black spots of Aegrine and the stunning bright orange Tinakite make beautiful polished items. Because of political reasons, Charoite was fairly unknown outside of Russia and even still today, only items that are finished, ie. polished, cabbed, or slabbed. Rough is tough to obtain and they have strict rules against exporting the unworked stone to China. I don’t see any problem with this, it is good for Russia to limit the manufacture of this material to people that live in the country.
This is REAL Charoite, from Russia, the only place it is found.




Charoite is one of those items that is unmistakeable, with its taletell color and form.

I SAID UNMISTAKEABLE!
So, now let us gaze upon these dealers selling this new find of AGATE/FLUORITE mix from China…

Is it these people’s fault for selling this Agate as Charoite? Well, yes, because they should know better!
Everytime someone is listed on FakeMinerals.com they get a warning letter. I give people the chance to repent and remove the offending item. The picture above is from a dealer who just simply said, No, it is Charoite. This next dealer featured got into it with me, but it is no suprise because they truly have no grasp of minerals in general and have several misleading and mislabeled items in their eBay store. Sellers and buyers beware, always take a mineral ID from Chinese lapidary factories with an extra large grain of salt. Your first view of anything like this should be with a great deal of skepticism. Well, take a look at Crystal Broker, a metaphysical dealer who has listing and IDing skills that leave much to be desired.

I’ll give them a few days to pick and select which auctions to end before I show you all of the mislabeled items in Crystal Broker’s store. =)

I think the worst thing is the fact that some dealers refuse to correct their errors and set themselves into the light. The truth will set you free. All I ask is that you kiss the papal ring and repent. Is that so much to ask? I don’t sell indulgences, but I do demand you to repent. Kiss it. Kiss the ring.

Otherwise we burn you at the stake. Heretic.

Here is a Chinese dealer who is selling these spheres wholesale…


You see, I used to work at a large wholesale mineral business and I would place the orders for the tumbled and polished material from China. Often times exotic minerals would be offered, but the items recieved were more like an artist’s interpretation of the item. These metaphysical dealers are just drinking the kool-aid that is being served up, not knowing enough about minerals to actually sniff out the truth. I guess if you are just going from the gut you are missing out on the facts. Have they been worshiping at the church of Steven Colbert? Sorry people, minerals are science. Science is based in facts. Facts come from research, not the gut.

This sphere above is listed as Bamboo agate, which is closer to what it actually is. See the cleavage lines in the purple. That is exactly what Fluorite looks like. Charoite does not have that cleavage style, eliminating it from the options this rough is. Certainly Fluorite. Certainly not Charoite.

A reader alerted me to something I had seen before in the past I thought was odd. (Thanks Tim!)

So, when I went back and checked again, I was suprised to see this still in print.

The website SunSpar.com sells faceted translucent Labradorite, otherwise known as Sunstone when it has a schiller effect to it.

The faceted Gem grade yellow Labradorite is very real, however without sparkling inclusions, it should not be called Sunstone, which it is several times on their website.

In addition, the supply of large chunks of facet grade Labradorite are not in any kind of short supply. Quite the contrary, I know one of the owners of a very large Mexican Labradorite mine and from first hand knowledge, the supply of top notch gem grade Labradorite is not running low and it has not for the last twenty years.

While the website states that the information they are giving you in their sales pitch is “In the opinon of their manager”, blatent misinformation is a lie. I contacted the company via phone call to ask them if they stood by their story after I told them the information I had, I was abruptly hung up on. Apparently they have no comment on this.

Here is a photo of their website from the WAYBACKMACHINE, circa Feb. 1998. Below that, a picture of their site from today, March 26th, 2008.

70% off! I guess that site didn’t do a super great job convincing that yellow Labradorite was some crazy rare gem, never before known to mankind.

Written By Justin Zzyzx and Brandy Naugle for FakeMinerals.com
(Reporters please note-Get your facts in order by calling the writer of the article, Justin Zzyzx at 323-284-8360 - Available for interviews)
Investigative Reporting by Hal Guyot

Arkansas is known for something very unique.

The ONLY public access diamond mine in the entire world. For a small fee, anyone can go to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro Arkansas and search for diamonds in the giant open dirt field.

While it is certainly no easy task to unearth a diamond here, amazing finds have been reported and tracked through time. The average diamond found at the “Crater” is far less than a carat, most weighing in at under 10 points (that’s 1/10th of a carat) (TINY!). Finding a nice big fat stone over a carat is something people work for years and don’t find!

Diamonds at the Crater come in several shades, 70% of them being white, with brown coming in second and yellow is a close third.

The state park registers all of the diamonds that people find at the park, if they are willing to register it. Some don’t because they want to keep it private, while many want the nifty card that you get when you register your diamond with the park. They even keep track of everyone’s finds on their website, www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.

Diamonds from Arkansas are also special because of a very important fact. They are worth some SERIOUS dollars! They are so special and unique, plus they tend to be among the hardest diamonds known to man. They have a unique form and often look like sleek drops of glass, rather than crude cubes and rough diamonds of so many African locations. So, an Arkansas diamond is going to be one of the most expensive diamonds you can get, but rightfully so!

Now that you know all about the important facts about diamonds from the “Crater of Diamonds State Park”, learn about how someone almost came up with a perfect scam. Almost.

You certainly couldn’t take any diamond into the park and plant it on the ground. Or at least no one thought you could. A diamond from Africa, Brazil, Russia, et al. would not produce diamonds that look like the ones from Arkansas. But someone found a source that could pass for Arkansas diamonds. A source in India that imports diamonds from the Panna Mines.

Photos of diamond lots sent to Eric to examine prior to purchase.

India produces hundreds of thousands more diamonds than the US, therefore, the diamonds from India are much cheaper than their American counterparts. A man named Eric Blake (www.arkansasdiamondjewelry.com) figured out he could make some money by purchasing diamonds from India then take them into the park and “find” them. A brown diamond from India costs around $100 per carat, while a similar diamond from Arkansas costs $1000 -$2000 per carat. A profit of more than 1000%.

In late October of 2007, Eric Blake and his family took a trip to the “Crater” and found an amazing amount of LARGE BROWN DIAMONDS!

It was no coincidence that he also placed a rush order for an assortment of Indian diamonds to be delivered no later than October 18th.

On 10/6/07 Eric sent the following message from his girlfriend (and accomplice) Susan Gabrielson’s email account.

Hello (Name Withheld),

I may have deleted your last mail by accident. As I have not gotten a response from you. We are eagerly awaiting your mail. The stones must be received no later than October 18, 2007. Anything you can do to expedite this shipment would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Eric

Over the span of 5 days, Eric and his three assistants “found” over 16.5 carats of diamonds at the park, including a whopping 3.92 carat stone! What great luck, eh? Out of all of the recorded finds they had that week, 60% of them were brown! What an interesting thing, because usually only around 20% of the finds are brown in color.

Screen captures of from the park diamond find archive for Eric Blake, Susan Gabrielson, Sarah Gabrielson, & Sayde Gabrielson

Eric also owns a website called ArkansasDiamondJewelry.com which sells diamonds and jewelry, reported to come from the “Crater”, complete with certificate of authenticity issued by the Arkansas State Park. However, some of the diamonds on the site are proven to be Indian in origin. FakeMinerals.com received paperwork which shows Eric Blake importing diamonds from India in early October.

Kimberly Certificate

UPS Tracking code, screen captured from UPS.com

If that isn’t damning enough, photos taken by the salesperson in India which clearly match up with diamonds for sale on ArkansasDiamondJewelry.com

In addition, Eric sells “Arkansas Diamonds” on eBay (sayde1garcia) and has successfully sold some of his Indian diamonds to mineral dealers here in America as originating from Arkansas.

Private sources have indicated that they have been onto Mr. Blake for a few months now, but they have lacked the evidence to be sure that he was “salting” the diamond field.

One regular digger at the “Crater” met Mr. Blake in 2006 when he first tried out his scam. At that time he only registered a few diamonds. Mr. Blake offered to let the regular digger search his hole when he was done. It wasn’t much surprise that the regular didn’t find anything else in that hole. In 2007 Mr. Blake and his family were digging in an area that is known to be the dumping ground for gravel that was trucked in 1924 to put in a road. This gravel is completely free from diamonds as it is not from the diamond field, however they found a remarkable 32 diamonds! Mr. Blake then offered the hole to another family when they were leaving and while the family moved quite a bit of material, no more diamonds were forthcoming.

Mr. Blake. The diggers at the “Crater of Diamonds State Park” would like you to know that you are persona non grata.

With this information MOST, IF NOT ALL of the Diamonds sold by Mr. Blake are not from Arkansas and should be labeled as coming from the Panna Mine in India.

It is amazing that someone could think they would get away with trying to scam these finds, especially since there are dozens of people who stare, poke and prod at the numbers of the finds on the Crater’s website. 32 diamonds is an impossible number of diamonds to be found by two adults and two children during 5 days at the park.

Additionaly, As recently as January 2008, Eric has sent emails trying to “match” certain stones. And while there is nothing wrong with that in itself, in this context, it is more than a little suspicious.

I leave you with this parting thought… What is the Travel Channel’s most promoted collecting location on their “Best Places to find Cash and Treasures” series? Yep, you guessed it! Crater of Diamonds State Park! Could this be the beginning of the inevitable backlash associated with promoting this “get rich quick” mentality to mineral collecting? I guess only time will tell.

Fake Minerals and Scams are all around us. If you catch wind of something fishy, send to us here at Justin@the-vug.com

Thanks again to Hal Guyot (GeoSleuth@gmail.com) for all your hard work on this story!

Special Extra Thanks goes out to the HONEST INDIAN DEALER, Malay Hirani of Soni Tools (www.sonitools.com) for being willing to help stop fraud!

UPDATE!: Just google Eric Blake’s name on Google and you will find AP News report after AP News report about his 3.92 carat stone find in October of 2007. Not only did he scam the public, the state park, but he also scamed the media. What a guy!

UPDATE!: As soon as Eric heard about this website, he removed the photos that match up above and got rid of his “Dealer Lot” section, well, those diamonds matched up perfectly!

UPDATE!: Actually, this will be the last update to the article until formal charges are made in this pending case. It turns out that Mr. Blake and his associates are actually ALL career criminals, with Eric having been convicted of Fraud over 20 times in the state of WISCONSIN (Eric M. Blake and Eric Blake, Outagamie County). Two of them were Felony charges. What is shameful is that he took the young kid with them when doing this scam, making her an accomplice, knowingly or unknowingly we don’t know. Not a good family values lesson to be teaching!!! However, Eric Blake did learn this from his parents, as they have multiple fraud charges against them as well. Shameful. These matters take time to get going, so unfortunatly, we will not have another update for some time, however, when something moves in this case, you will hear about it! So much more evidence has been POURING out, with customers in multiple sales working with this case. More diamonds have been matched from the original pictures, more documents have been discovered.

And here is a picture found on Google of Eric Blake holding his “famous find”. Pretty smug looking, don’t you think?