Knoxville's Jewelry Television hit with multi-million dollar fraud lawsuit

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 2008/06/01 - 6:17pm.

According to sources, "a class action lawsuit has been filed against Knoxville-based Jewelry Television Network for false advertising, misrepresentation and unlawful, unfair and deceptive trade practices."

The $5+ million class action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California by attorney Mark Tamblyn of Sacramento CA and attorney Greg Coleman of the Coleman & Edwards law firm in Knoxville, claims that "Jewelry Television sold gemstones it described as 'green or red andesine labradorite' which were actually colorless or yellow common feldspar that had been chemically treated to look red or green."

Plaintiffs allege that Jewelry TV misrepresented the gemstones as a "highly coveted, extremely rare, all-natural, expensive gem that looks like an Oregon Sunstone" and sold them "from Jan. 2003 until the present for up to $149 per carat." According to the complaint, JTV obtained the stones for "pennies per carat" from suppliers in China, Mexico and Mongolia. The stones were allegedly given a "facelift through artificial treatment" and "sold at a great mark-up" to customers as being "rare and all-natural."

Here's a copy of the lawsuit.

Correction: E.W. Scripps, which owns the Knoxville News Sentinel, did not own Jewelry TV as stated in the original post. Jewelry TV purchased the Shop at Home Network from E.W. Scripps for $17 million in 2006.

UPDATE: The Knoxville News Sentinel picks up on the story this morning.



Scripps ownership ...

Scripps never owned Jewelry Television. They owned the Shop at Home Network over in Nashville, which Jewelry purchased from Scripps. If I'm not mistaken, Jewelry couldn't make a go of Shop at Home, either, and they closed it.

Shop At Home

You are correct, they closed Shop At Home after poor millions of $$ into it. That money would have been better spent saving the jobs in Knoxville instead of laying people off.

R. Neal's picture
Oops. You are correct. I had

Oops. You are correct. I had that backwards. Thanks. Post corrected.

check out blog in News

check out blog in News Sentinel

Link...

Lawsuit

If you've bought andesine/lab from JTV and want to join the class action lawsuit come join us here Link...

Or

Here:
Gembusters.com or use this link: Link...

Thag13's picture
Not a good week for J TV

They just had a layoff of about 200+ folks and cutbacks for insurance coverage, bonuses and even Xmas and employee appreciation parties...

And I have several friends that work there....

No Matter Where you go, There you Are!!!!

denial

The network just denied the allegations in the lawsuit. All the attorneys have to do is subpeona their employees past and present.

Bizzy's picture
Who are these people anyway?

...Who would buy jewelry on television? Its not like there isn't a mega-jewelry store on every block. I guess its true "there's a sucker born every minute".

Shareholder meeting later this month

Jewelry Television has a shareholder meeting later this month. It should prove either very exciting or a pulitzer prize winning work of fiction. Stay tuned.....

Shareholder Meeting

There may be a meeting taking place at JTV this month, but it won't be a shareholder meeting as JTV is privately held/owned. There are owners that have %'s of ownership, but there are no shareholders like a public traded company.

jtv ripoff

There isent enough word to say what jtv did to me. Y mother died in 1999,5months later Iwas diagnosed with breast cancer, Ihad alittle money from my mom death. While I was recovering from chemo and radiation.I started to watch jtv,the hosts all seemed to know what they were talking about. they said they were buying the andesine themselves and the bosses too.After finding out the andesine was nothing but dyed stone.The stress brought back the cancer and I was stuck with useless stones and broke and humiliated with my family. Can sombody please help me. My grandchildren had their stones piced out. Now I hide them thank you , dumbe blonde

address to file andesine complaints

to add your name on to the class action:

send email to: mjt@wtwlaw.com
and
gcoleman@colemanedwardspc.com

MORE LAWSUITS A COMIN'

Rumor has it that an equal pay/gender discrimination lawsuit has been filed against our favorite jewelry shop at home. This action is in addition to an EEOC lawsuit and two huge class action lawsuits. More details to follow.......

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