Leviev is also moving beyond the ancient game of one-upmanship--and beyond the dirty business of diamonds.
Leviev owns mines and mining interests (in Africa and Russia), as well as manufacturing and wholesale operations.
Mr Leviev is building another factory in Luanda, Angola, partly hoping to curry favour with the government.
As Mr Oppenheimer concedes, this is a delicate time for Mr Leviev to be courting in southern Africa.
Nor does Mr Oppenheimer think a polishing industry is viable in many diamond-producing countries, whatever Mr Leviev says.
The obvious step for De Beers now would be to take on Mr Leviev at his own game.
ECONOMIST: The diamond cartel: The cartel isn't for ever | The
His partnerships in Russia, Angola and Namibia represent part of Leviev's play for direct ownership of rough supplies--geopolitically diversified.
"Once, everyone who sat in this room was a manufacturer, " billionaire dealer Lev Leviev said at the opening of a Gemological Institute of America (GIA) laboratory in September.
Fellow Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev relocated to London in 2007.
Graff can count one potent rival, the Israeli Lev Leviev ( see FORBES, Sept. 15, 2003), who has set up a diamond operation even more vertically integrated than Graff's.
But Mr Leviev probably does not care.
ECONOMIST: The diamond cartel: The cartel isn't for ever | The
Leviev's sumptuous first store, in London on Old Bond Street, sits a stone's throw from Graff's on New Bond Street, and his second, in Manhattan, will be less than a block from Graff's new boutique on Madison Avenue.
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