The National Post published a lengthy feature story last year, detailing a scam involving false claims of access to pink diamonds from the Argyle Mine in Australia. It was reported that as many as 200 people were defrauded of more than $USD21 million ($AUD32 million).
James Gagliardini was the founder of Paragon International Wealth Management Inc., a company launched in 2013. He operated a ‘boiler room’ operation, with an outbound call centre used to sell fancy colour diamond ‘investments’.
Paragon was active for five years before being raided by Canadian authorities in 2018. After it was discovered that the majority of the victims were based in the US and not Canada, the US Department of Justice filed an indictment against four people, who all pleaded guilty.
Gagliardini has been sentenced to 56 months behind bars. Among the accused was 67-year-old Antonio Palazzolo, who entered a guilty plea in 2022. He was scheduled to be sentenced by Judge J. Philip Calabrese in Cleveland on 8 May; however, he failed to appear in court.
It has since been revealed that Palazzolo faced a far longer stay behind bars compared with that of his co-conspirators, as he has continued offending in recent years.
One victim has reportedly provided an invoice from Palazzolo for the purchase of a pink diamond dated 24 April 2025 – just two weeks before his scheduled sentencing.
Jack Kronis was sentenced to 37 months in November, while Edward Rosenberg was sentenced to 34 months. Because of his reoffending, Palazzolo was expected to be sentenced to a minimum of 108 months behind bars, with the potential to reach 135 months.
Assistant United States Attorney James Lewis said that reduced sentencing was entirely inappropriate in light of the continued offending.
“A defendant’s commission of new crimes related to the offence of conviction while on bond is inconsistent with acceptance of responsibility,” he said.
“Given that Palazzolo has continued to engage in similar fraudulent conduct since pleading guilty, the government opposes Palazzolo receiving any reduction for acceptance of responsibility.”
US court documents claim Palazzolo’s alleged company is Pavillion. A lawsuit has been filed in a Canadian court, alleging investment fraud against Palazzolo and Pavilion Diamonds International.
Prosecutors said the amount of money stolen from Paragon’s victims attributed to Palazzolo was around $USD1.5 million ($AUD2.3 million).
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