Millionaire suing hotel takes stand

[Cammy]

Jan 25, 2011

Millionaire suing hotel takes stand

By Selina Lum

American multi-millionaire Anne Hendricks Bass, is suing Shangri-La hotel over a missing 6.41-carat diamond ring. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

AMERICAN multi-millionaire Anne Hendricks Bass, who is suing Shangri-La hotel over a missing 6.41-carat diamond ring, took the stand on Tuesday for the first time. She spent most of the day being grilled by defence lawyers over her account of the two times that hotel employees had entered her suite.

Lawyer K. Anparasan, who is representing the hotel, repeatedly took her through the events of Feb6, 2009, the day Ms Bass says the ring went missing from her hotel suite. He put it to her that she had visited several places that day and could have lost the ring or misplaced it elsewhere.

But she said it was 'impossible'. She had worn the ring daily for the past 25 years, taking it off only in the shower, she said. The ring could not have slipped off as it was hard to remove; and it was not her habit to remove it when she was outside, she added.

The lawyer also questioned her account of what happened that day, seeking to portray her as a forgetful woman who could not get her dates straight.

Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Cammy]

American socialite sues hotel for loss of diamond ring
By Tanya Fong | Posted: 25 January 2011 2345 hrs
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Photo of the 6.41-carat diamond ring that belonged to Anne Hendricks Bass </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td class="update"></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>
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SINGAPORE : An American socialite is suing Shangri-La Hotel for the loss of a 6.41-carat diamond ring.

She claims it is worth about S$280,000, about the price of a 3-room HDB flat.

The hotel disputes that, saying it is only worth a quarter of that price.

The owner of the ring, Ms Anne Hendricks Bass from Texas, said she had bought it from JAR's, a famous jeweller.

In her first appearance in the High Court - in a trial that is expected to last till Thursday - Ms Bass claimed that the hotel staff or masseuse had stolen the ring in 2009 when she was a guest there.

Shangri-La, through its lawyer Anparasan Kamachi from KhattarWong, said Ms Bass was making the claim because she was rejected by insurers, but Ms Bass disagreed.

The trial continues on Wednesday. A gemologist for the defence is expected to testify that the ring is worth between S$64,000 and S$77,000.

Ms Bass is one of the richest women in the US with a $260-million divorce settlement from Texas billionaire Sid Bass.

- CNA/al

 

[Cammy]

Day 2 hearing of missing diamond ring case
By Leong Wee Keat | Posted: 26 January 2011 2045 hrs
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SINGAPORE : A High Court hearing into an American millionaire's missing 6.41-carat diamond ring presented differing accounts of the events that transpired during the incident.

Two Shangri-La Hotel staff testified on Wednesday that Ms Anne Hendricks Bass was wearing a white bathrobe when they arrived to provide a massage.

Ms Bass, 68, had testified on Tuesday she had placed her ring on a dressing table before going to the bathroom to change.

Masseuse Nga'esah Haji Sawal said she did not recall Ms Bass wearing any jewellery when she first opened the room's door at around 6.30pm on February 6, 2009.

Mr Reno Rasi said he was in Ms Bass room "for not more than two minutes" after helping to set up the massage bed.

Ms Nga'esah then performed an hour-long massage on Ms Bass and left the room "immediately" afterwards.

A hotel butler entered the room to deliver a meal between 9.15pm and 9.30pm before Ms Bass realised the ring was missing at about 10pm.

The American socialite is suing the hotel for compensation for the missing ring, which is valued at US$220,000 by the jeweller who made the ring.

Both Mr Reno and Ms Nga'esah testified on Wednesday that the hotel staff's bags were checked before they left that night, while their personal lockers in the changing rooms were also searched the following day.

Ms Bass became one of the richest women in the United States after her 1988 divorce from Texas billionaire Sid Bass. She purchased the ring in June 1986 from exclusive jeweller Joel Rosenthal.

The ring's valuation also came under the spotlight on Wednesday.

Gem expert Eric Wong Ngiam Chin - who testified on behalf of Ms Bass - felt the replacement value of the ring would be at least US$214,530, while the hotel's expert witness, Mr Tay Thye Sun, felt the ring was worth US$60,000 at most.

Both experts also differed on their descriptions of the diamond's shape, cut, colour, clarity, pricing and value.

Mr Tay said: "I do not agree with them simply because the cost of the initial invoice was low to start with and there is no documentary proof of the diamond quality."

The hearing continues on Thursday.

- CNA/al

 

[Captain Needa]

Jan 28, 2011

SHANGRI-LA MISSING RING CASE

Reward was offered, but staff not told

Owner made $64,000 offer in e-mail to two senior staff, police

By Selina Lum

Hotel employees were grilled yesterday on whether appropriate steps were taken after Ms Anne Hendricks Bass' ring was reported missing. -- NP FILE PHOTO

STAFF at the Singapore hotel being sued by an American multimillionaire over a missing diamond ring were not told she had offered a US$50,000 (S$64,000) reward for information leading to its recovery, a court heard yesterday.

Ms Anne Hendricks Bass is seeking US$220,000 compensation for the 6.41-carat ring which she said went missing from her suite at the Shangri-La Hotel on Feb 6, 2009.

Three weeks after that, Ms Bass offered the reward in an e-mail message sent to the police and two senior hotel employees.

The hotel's area director of security, Mr Edwin Alexius Pinto, said an e-mail message about it was forwarded to him by front office manager Claudia Lee. However, he chose not to tell the staff, saying that it was a decision for the management.

He was being questioned by Ms Bass' lawyer Tan Chuan Thye, who focused on the question of whether the hotel took the appropriate steps after the ring was reported missing.

Mr Pinto and assistant security manager Rajendran Vasavan were also grilled on issues such as surveillance footage, the records of who had entered her room, and the taking of statements from hotel employees.

Mr Rajendran was asked why employees who had entered Ms Bass' room were interviewed only the next day.

He said it was because they had gone off duty. He said all cases are dealt with as soon as possible.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
[email protected]

 

[youallhumsup]

Oct 27, 2010
Dispute over missing ring's value

By Selina Lum

THE value of a 6.41-carat diamond ring was yesterday at issue in a hearing into the suit brought by an American multimillionaire who said she lost it at the Shangri-La hotel.

Testifying via video link from New York on Day Two of the hearing was a senior executive from auction house Christie's, which valued the ring at US$220,000 (S$286,400), echoing the assessment of the jeweller who had sold the ring to Ms Anne Hendricks Bass.

Ms Bass is suing the hotel for compensation for the missing ring, which she said she lost during her stay there in February last year.

The hotel's gem expert, who took into account the prices of gold and diamonds, had concluded in his report that the ring was worth US$50,000 to US$60,000.

Lawyer K. Anparasan, for the hotel, questioned the way in which Ms Daphne Lingon, a 17-year veteran of Christie's, arrived at her opinion, faulting her for not doing independent calculations.

But she replied that calculating the ring's value the way the hotel's valuer had done was like trying to arrive at the value of a Picasso painting by totting up the cost of the frame and the canvas.

The estimate, she said, had to factor in the creator of the piece and its demand in the marketplace.

She added that in this case, the fact that the ring was made by famed Parisian jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal, better known as JAR, was the largest factor in deciding its value.

 

[youallhumsup]

Millionaire loses missing diamond case

Judge says she failed to prove ring was taken at Shangri-La Hotel

Published on Oct 26, 2011​

Justice Judith Prakash found Ms Bass (above) had embellished her version of the events in which she said her 6.41-carat diamond ring went missing. -- PHOTOS: TNP FILE, JAR PARIS

By K. C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

An American woman who sued the Shangri-La Hotel over the loss of a diamond ring has lost her case in the High Court.

Justice Judith Prakash found that millionaire businesswoman Anne Hendricks Bass, 69, had failed to prove that the ring went missing at the hotel.

The hotel staff who had attended to the guest were also cleared of any liability.


BACKGROUND STORY

Justice Prakash also found other discrepancies and inconsistencies which, taken together, 'do build up a picture of someone who is forgetful and rather careless'. 'There was no convincing evidence that she had brought the ring to Singapore, much less back to the hotel on the evening in question after two days in Singapore, which she spent largely out of the hotel.'

But even if Ms Bass had won the case, she would have been entitled to no more than $500, Justice Prakash said in her judgment released on Tuesday.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.