Is it okay to sell a diamond as a G color when the color is really an N? How about if the G is really an L? Shockingly, a lot of the people in the diamond trade think that it’s perfectly okay to use third-party diamond grading reports to overstate the color and clarity of the diamonds they sell. Diamond grading reports labeled EGL International (EGLI) commonly use Gemological Institute of America (GIA) terminology to describe diamonds as four or more color/clarity combination grades higher than what the GIA would give the same stones. Overgrading has become institutionalized. Hundreds of thousands of diamonds worth billions of dollars have been sold to consumers with overgraded reports in the past few years. Remarkably, the dealers selling overgraded reports are not ashamed of their actions. Some buy diamonds with GIA grading reports conditioned on the seller’s obtaining three, four or even five color/clarity combination upgrades from EGLI. Retailers seeking greater profits are active buyers of overgraded reports. After all, it’s easier to sell an EGLI G at a low price than a GIA G at a much higher price. It’s also easier to sell an EGLI G at the same price as a GIA K color. Consumers don’t understand the nuances of color grading or the differences between GIA and EGLI reports, but they can certainly tell the 74 percent difference in cost from $4,200 to $7,300 for a 1-carat SI1 diamond. From dealers to retailers, an entire industry has emerged based on overgrading. While the profit motivations are easy to understand, the cynical justifications for the unethical behavior are often just as crooked as the sellers themselves. The obvious negative ramifications of overgrading and misrepresenting diamond quality to hundreds of thousands of consumers are clear. The damage to the diamond industry by the establishment, acceptance and support of a culture that promotes systematic misrepresentation of diamond quality and the outright cheating of consumers destroys the diamond trade from within. It is as insidious as an undetected cancer eating away at the essential moral fiber of the diamond trade. Frankly, are we an industry of liars and cheaters? And if not, what are the good people in our trade doing about the gross misrepresentations of diamond quality going on right under our noses? I believe that most of the people in our industry are honest and reputable. But I now question all of these good people, as well as our important trade organizations: Why are you turning a blind eye to the large-scale rampant misrepresentation and cheating that is going on? Hundreds of thousands of diamond consumers have been and are being cheated. Why are you not speaking up against this injustice?