Robert Mouawad acquires a 60,19 carat diamond and faces a lawsuit filed by his former domestic employees...

Geneva, 23rd November 2000 - Robert Mouawad is in Geneva's news... At Christie's recent auction sale in Geneva, the jeweller acquired almost a quarter of the sale, which amounted to 50,3 million SFr.
The core item of the auction was a 60,19 carat diamond, of which Robert Mouawad is now the happy owner for 7.159.750 SFr. An exceptional jewel by its color, purity and size, the diamond is named “Mouawad Mondera” after the mondera.com Internet site of Mouawad's jewellery business.
“I chose to name it the Mouawad Mondera”, said Mr. Mouawad, “as, for me, it stands for the link between four Mouawad generations and the future represented by the Internet”.
However, Robert Mouawad is also in Geneva's news for employing and underpaying two domestic employees for over 10 years. The couple of employees recently won the case, which was first filed in the Tribunal des Prud'hommes (settling conflicts between employers and employees), then in Bern's Tribunal FÉdÉral (supreme Swiss jurisdiction).
Notwithstanding this fact, as Robert Mouawad failed to execute the payment of the dues ordered by the court, the ex employees brought the case to the criminal courts and the instructing judge ordered a bank account seizure.
Finally, as the former employees received the compensation due, which amounts to almost half a million Swiss francs, the complaint against Mr Mouawad was withdrawn.

From Le Temps and La Tribune de Genève