It’s difficult to imagine that one person could cause a 3-decade-long diplomatic dispute
between two countries, but in 1989, an unsuspecting gardener named Kriangkrai Techamon did just
that.
Working at the palace of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd, Kriangkrai had access to the royal
jewels and a lust for the ultimate “get rich quick” scheme.
Surely Prince Faisal, grandson of the first monarch and founder of the country of Saudi
Arabia, wouldn’t notice a few missing precious gems, right?
Well, in this case, a “few” is an understatement because he swiped a royal pendant worth a
whopping $20 million!
But was this pendant cursed?
It’s a story with many twists and still unsolved mysteries, and is today known as
The Blue Diamond Affair.
The “Blue Diamond Affair” gets its name from an extremely rare 50-carat blue diamond,
that’s larger than the infamous Hope Diamond, that was said to have been among the items
stolen from the Saudi Prince.
Whether this particular blue diamond even exists, however, is still up for debate.
The matter is unclear and shrouded in mystery.
Perhaps the old lady from Titanic went ahead and dropped this one in the ocean too – she
has a bad habit of doing that sort of thing.
We can’t be sure, but we know one thing, no one would want to be caught dead walking
around displaying the pendant in plain sight.
So, it is realistic to assume that this precious treasure would remain hidden by whoever currently
has it in their possession.
Or it’s also possible that the diamond was cut into smaller pieces and distributed.
Regardless of what happened to it, some believe the diamond was and still might be cursed!
After hearing the full story, we’ll let you decipher whether you believe this to be
the case.
The story goes that the thief responsible, Kriangkrai, stole the Prince’s jewels by
hiding them in a vacuum cleaner bag and had them shipped to his home country of Thailand
where he made off with, what the Washington Post describes as, “rubies the size of chicken
eggs” amongst other expensive gems.
He quickly sold them for much less than they were worth before being caught by authorities.
His actions caused a major feud between the countries of Saudi Arabia and Thailand, a
diplomatic “spat” still ongoing to this day.
In exchange for a shorter sentence, Kriangkrai, cooperated with authorities, releasing the
name of the jeweler he sold the stolen items to, a man named Santhi Sithanakan.
You’d think this is where the story would naturally conclude but this was no ordinary
heist investigation.
The stolen treasure was recovered and returned, but up to 80% of the loot was uncovered to
be fake, replicas of the original jewels – and poor ones at that.
And worst of all, the most precious of them all, the Blue Diamond, was nowhere to be found!
As you can guess, this made the Saudis more than a little upset.
Adding salt to the wound, the wives of various top Thai officials were rumored to be spotted
at different events wearing pieces of what looked suspiciously like the missing jewels
of Prince Faisal.
Many high-profile Thai officials spent years attempting to cover their tracks, wanting
to stay as far from suspicion as possible while protecting their reputations.
Who could blame them?
After all, no one would want to be wrapped up in an international mess of this magnitude.
The dispute progressed, and things soon took a very dark turn for the worse.
Infuriated by the still missing and fake jewels, the Saudis sent a group of emissaries to Thailand
to investigate the matter of the Blue Diamond Affair further.
Upon their arrival in 1990, however, three of the Saudi diplomats were murdered in Bangkok,
supposedly shot to death.
The circumstances of their deaths were incredibly suspicious and immediately came under intense
scrutiny.
But the truth about the assassinations was never fully revealed.
As if the situation weren’t precarious enough, a fourth Saudi representative and businessman
also went missing.
It was presumed that he met the same fate.
But the story doesn’t conclude here…
The Thai jeweler, Santhi, who had been sold the treasures by Kriangkrai before his arrest,
was also believed to have been responsible for the imitation jewels returned to the Saudis,
but he was soon an important witness in the case.
Santhi gave authorities the names of those who had purchased the stolen jewels from him,
a big mistake, because in 1994 he was kidnapped for three days and his wife and son were killed
soon after.
At the time, Thai police claimed that they had died in a car accident, but the Saudis
were unconvinced.
They remained suspicious and, by this point, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and
Thailand was badly damaged, perhaps beyond reconciliation.
The whole blue diamond saga damaged diplomatic ties between the two countries to the extent
that Saudi Arabia refused to renew visas for Thai workers within the country resulting
in many Thai citizens being deported back to Thailand.
It seemed that the Saudis were not about to let this matter go to rest and, as late as
2010, thousands of Thai visitors were refused travel visas to Mecca.
The permits were withheld, supposedly due to a “technical” error but probably more
likely due to an old grudge the Saudis continue to hold against Thailand.
To make matters worse, Saudi Arabia banned its citizens from visiting Thailand as tourists.
To this day, Saudi citizens still need to obtain special permission to visit Thailand.
Additionally, the number of Thai workers in Saudi Arabia is greatly restricted.
This, all in thanks to a jewel thief who tried to get away with what he thought would be
a small heist back in 1989.
Kriangkrai’s sentence ended up being very short – arguably too short.
He spent a mere 3 years in prison for his crime, which would seem unjust considering
the immense impact his theft had on two nations.
He did, however, have to live out the remainder of his life always looking over his shoulder.
He claimed that the blue diamond he stole was cursed, bringing unending misfortune to
him and his family.
As recently as 2016, Kriangkrai wanted so badly to distance himself from his involvement
in the Blue Diamond Affair that he decided to retreat and isolate himself as a Buddhist
monk.
He was quoted by local media saying: “I am confident that all my misfortunes
are the result of a curse from the Saudi diamond I stole, so I’ve decided to enter the monkhood
for the rest of my life to redeem my bad karma.”
The former palace gardener’s regret cuts so deep that he decided to refrain indefinitely
from ever seeing his family again.
Is this decision driven by his personal guilt or by his fear of the curse?
Does the punishment fit the crime?
One could argue that his remorse and/or paranoia is torture enough.
What do you think?
Whether the blue diamond is actually cursed may never be fully determined.
But it could be said that the sequence of dark events throughout this jewel heist-gone-wrong
had something to do with a mythical aspect of the gem.
Perhaps the murders, betrayals and strange disappearances were linked to other-worldly
forces that were at play, causing the uproar of an entire nation.
But we can only speculate at this point.
So, do you think Kriangkrai unleashed a dark magic by stealing the bling from Prince Faisal’s
stash?
Will foreign relations between Saudi Arabia and Thailand ever be mended over this?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video “How The Biggest Diamond Vault Heist Of
The Century Happened!”
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!