Not long before getting "robbed" by fake Hasidic Jews, a pair of financially desperate Diamond District jewelers cleared out their safe -- replacing the contents with what appear to be empty boxes, according to a bombshell video played by prosecutors yesterday in Manhattan Supreme court.
The footage is the DA's smoking gun in the case against Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya, accused of staging a $7 million heist that played out like the one in the Guy Ritchie movie "Snatch" -- right down to the gun-toting thieves in black hats and bogus beards.
On New Year's Eve 2008, according to the jewelers' account, two phony Hasids with real-looking guns tricked their way into their West 46th Street offices, destroying the surveillance video recorder, tossing empty jewelry boxes and fleeing with a fortune in gems.
Trouble was, although a full bottle of industrial-strength drain opener had been poured into the recorder, its motherboard endured. And the surviving footage shows Shah, 49, and Kankariya, 44, walking together into the kitchen where the video equipment is stored just two hours before the robbery.
Immediately afterward, the video image from one of four cameras begins flickering before dying a slow death.
But the surviving tape shows the pair removing jewels from their safe and refilling it with what the prosecution claims are empty boxes -- allegedly to leave something behind for cops to find
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Last Updated: 7:05 PM, February 10, 2011
The beards may well have been fake, but the alleged hoax Hasid heist of $7 million in Diamond District gems was terrifyingly real, testified the jeweler who prosecutors say was the plot's unwitting stooge.
"We'll blow your brains out!" one of two goons dressed in Hasidic garb shouted convincingly during the Dec. 31, 2008 robbery, according to Ujjwal Bistal.
Manhattan prosecutors say the W. 46th St. robbery was actually an inside job by Bistal's two bosses.
Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya are on trial for $7 million in insurance fraud, accused by prosecutors of staging a real-life scene out of the Guy Ritchie movie, Snatch, by hiring men to dress as Hasidic Jews and rob their gem business
The case is weak against them
ReplyDelete1) only robber ( fake robber) arrested was released and charges dropped.
2) guns ( fake Guns) have no forensic imprint of these two guys. they were recovered after a year they evict the office premises
3) no video of taking the jewelry out of boxes, only footage is taking out boxes and putting them back
This is pure defeat for prosecution, and may be a subject for counter sue which all of us tax payers would had to pay.