BIRMINGHAM, MI – A Michigan jeweler has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a multi-million-dollar diamond-buying scheme.
Joseph DuMouchelle, 58, entered the plea Monday in federal court. He is the owner Birmingham-based DuMouchelle Fine & Estate Jewelers who twice auctioned an engagement ring presented by Donald Trump to second wife Marla Maples, according to the Associated Press. He faces sentencing on Jan. 13.
Authorities said that in 2018 DuMouchelle proposed to a client that a diamond known as the “Yellow Rose” could be purchased for $12 million as an investment opportunity and later sold for even more money.
The client was given wire transfer instructions to DuMouchelle’s account instead of a seller’s account. Once in DuMouchelle’s account, the funds were quickly withdrawn and used to pay debts and expenses.
As part of the plea agreement, DuMouchelle has acknowledged that there are other victims of the scheme “to obtain money by means of false and fraudulent material pretenses and representation,” according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
“White collar criminals may use sophisticated methods and apparently legitimate businesses, but their crimes amount to nothing more than stealing other people’s money,” said United States Attorney Matthew Schneider. “Dumouchelle lured his victims into believing his false promises because he held himself out to be an expert with valuable connections that would earn the victims substantial profits, but it was all a lie.”
DuMouchelle is well known in the industry. According to the Associated Press, he sold at auction a large diamond engagement ring that Trump gave to Maples in 2016. Maples previously sold the 7.45-carat emerald-cut, Harry Winston-designed ring after she and Trump divorced in 1999.
DuMouchelle was the auctioneer for that sale. The couple who purchased it later asked DuMouchelle to sell it for them.
“Joseph Dumouchelle defrauded his investors by convincing them that he was buying and selling rare jewelry for big profits,” said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan, Steven M. D’Antuono.
“It was all a lie. Instead, Dumouchelle used the victims' hard-earned money to help him maintain a lifestyle he could no longer afford. This case represents excellent collaboration between the Birmingham Police Department and the FBI’s Detroit Metropolitan Identity Theft and Financial Crimes Task Force.”
The investigation into Dumouchelle was conducted by the FBI’s Detroit Metropolitan Identity Theft and Financial Crimes Task Force and the Birmingham Police Department.