Back in 2018, Drew Brees reportedly dropped upwards of $15 million on jewelry, but he became enraged when he finally had the jewelry appraised to find out it was nowhere worth what he paid for it.
The New Orleans Saints QB filed a lawsuit against Vahid Moradi — who runs the CJ Charles jewelry shop in San Diego, the city where Brees began his NFL career.
On Thursday, the New Orleans Saints QB took the witness stand to claim how the jeweller misrepresented the value of diamonds and defrauded him out of $6.7 million.
Via The Advocate:
“Drew Brees climbed into the witness stand in a San Diego courtroom on Thursday afternoon and recounted how, as he sees it, a jeweler exploited their friendship to sell the New Orleans Saints’ quarterback extremely overpriced diamonds.
Brees explained how Moradi and CJ Charles Jewelers sold the couple $15 million worth of diamonds — one of which was a ring costing more than $8 million — between 2012 and 2016.”
Brees went on to reveal that he trusted the jeweler so much that he actually invested around $350,000 in a software company recommended to him by Moradi and considered investing in another store with him.
“Brees, 40, testified that Moradi portrayed the diamonds as investments that would rapidly appreciate and could weather downturns in the economy like the financial collapse of 2008.
“(Moradi) said there’s a new asset class that is being created with these things,” Brees testified Thursday, a clip from the news broadcast showed. “It’s a great place to put your money, especially since the stock market has tanked, the housing market has tanked, there was nowhere to put your money.”
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An appraiser in 2017 would soon inform Brees and his wife that they had paid roughly $7 million more for the collection than it was worth. The appraiser estimated that the $8 million ring was half that price.
“He forms the opinion, frankly, that Drew’s being ripped off,” one of Brees’ attorneys, Rebecca Riley, said during opening arguments.
Among other things, Brees’ suit claims Moradi admitted to substantially marking up the diamonds, saying that the prices were what he believed they could be resold for in several years.
But the Breeses rejected that explanation and cut ties with Moradi, whom they also accused of pocketing $244,000 they had given him for a watch they backed out of buying.”
Moradi has not only maintained his innocence, but has accused the appraiser of defrauding Drew and Brittany Brees.
“Both camps discussed possibly settling the case on Monday but didn’t strike an agreement, leading to jury selection and the start of the trial.”
The trial is expected to continue through next week.
