Today he is the world’s largest cutter and polisher of the precious gems and a primary source of rough stones to other cutters, polishers and jewelry makers around the globe. Those who have watched his rise over the last three decades say it was his intense hatred of De Beers that fueled him. He bristled under the Syndicate’s high-handed treatment of buyers, who were given boxes of rough diamonds at take-it-or-leave-it prices and risked being permanently cut off if they balked