Murray Todd Petersen & Adam Jonathan Lowe

What the public record shows

Murray Todd Petersen and Adam Jonathan Lowe operated Diamond Desk Corp. and PetersenLowe, LLC, which sold investors on purchasing fancy-colored diamonds as an investment. In May 2025, Petersen was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison and Lowe to over 6 years. These are criminal convictions — not allegations.

The scheme

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Petersen induced investors to purchase colored diamonds using materially false representations about:

• Investment safety — presenting colored diamonds as a secure, reliable store of value.
• Value and expected profits — overstating what the diamonds were actually worth and what returns investors could expect.
• Use of investor funds — misrepresenting how the money would actually be deployed.

This is part of a broader pattern of colored-diamond and gemstone Ponzi schemes prosecuted across multiple federal districts in recent years — the specialized, illiquid, hard-to-price nature of colored diamonds makes them a recurring vehicle for this exact kind of fraud.

Why colored diamonds attract investment fraud

Unlike stocks or standard commodities, colored diamonds have no public, real-time market price — valuation depends heavily on independent grading and appraisal that most retail buyers never verify. That opacity lets promoters claim almost any value or “growth” they want.

Why we rate this 1 / 10 — Avoid

Two convictions and multi-year sentences for misrepresenting the safety, value, and use of investor money in a gemstone-based scheme.

How to protect yourself

• Get an independent appraisal from a certified gemologist unaffiliated with the seller before buying any “investment-grade” gem.
• Confirm actual physical possession or third-party custody of the specific stones you’re told you own.
• Treat any claim of guaranteed appreciation in an illiquid collectible with deep skepticism — there’s no independent market price to verify it against.

Bottom line

Both convicted and sentenced. Colored diamonds, like other illiquid collectibles, have no independent market price — get your own certified appraisal and proof of custody before ever calling one an “investment.”

← Back to all reviews