Valuation expected on the Wrekin Ruby
Mar 31 2009 by Vicky Livingstone, Birmingham Post
The true value of a ruby discovered buried in the accounts of a collapsed Midlands construction firm could be revealed this week after administrators called in an independent expert to verify its worth.
The so-called ‘Gem of Tanzania’ was valued in the accounts of Shropshire engineering firm Wrekin Constructions - which went bust last month with the loss of nearly 600 jobs - at £11 million after it exchanged the stone for 11 million shares with the Tamar Group in 2006.
Doubt has since been cast on the valuation as the most expensive ruby ever sold was worth just £3 million and last week it was revealed that the man who originally owned the stone bought it for £13,000 and was exposed two years ago by BBC Newsnight as an international conman who once tried to sell a cure for Aids for nearly $100m.
According to reports, South African-born businessman Trevor Michael Hart-Jones initially bought the ruby for just £13,000 in 2002 from a mining company in the small town of Arusha in northern Tanzania.
The ruby then changed hands a number of times before it ended up with David Unwin, the owner of Tamar Group.
Mr Unwin bought £11 million worth of shares in Wrekin two years ago, saving the company from near-collapse, after producing a certificate verifying this valuation. However, earlier this month it was revealed that the Italian organisation which supposedly valued the gem had never actually seen it and was closed on the date of the supposed valuation.
A subsequent valuation by London-based jeweller David Davis, which claimed the jewel had a market value of $22-23 million, was said by Mr Davis himself to be a forgery, because his own valuation would have been handwritten, not typed.
Mr Hart-Jones’ involvement in the story came to light as his name was on provenance documents for the gem held by Mr Unwin.
Newsnight exposed Mr Hart-Jones after actor Richard E. Grant tipped them off after he was asked to front a scheme to sell goat serum as a “cure for Aids”.
In 2002 the ruby was brought to the UK by Mr Hart-Jones and, through unknown circumstances, came into the possession of Cheshire-based businessman Tony Howarth, director of a foreign exchange company.
Administrators Ernst & Young said last night that the ruby is currently locked in a safe and they expect a new independent valuation to be carried out this week.
