Strange Case of Jewel Thief Who Scammed Conde Nast and Consumers out of $300G

One of the city’s glitziest magazine publishers has been ensnared by a scamster who bounced checks for full page ads in Conde Nast Publications that he used to get consumers to turn over valuable jewelry including engagement rings, watches and necklaces.

Alex Borders, 46, aka Alex Hollinger used a company called “Hollinger Diamonds” to steal more than $300,000 in jewelry and ads in high end publications between August, 2023 and May 2024. The ads promised “instant cash” for jewelry. But the checks he sent bounced and the jewels were never returned, prosecutors said.

Many of his victims reported they were conned by a man named “Alex Hollinger” who ran ads in GQ and The New Yorker promising But the checks for the full page, four color ads as well as checks for the jewels that the victims sent him, bounced. The jewelry disappeared. Borders himself also seemed to disappear until he was arrested by police on Nov. 6.

Victims who posted complaints and exchanged telephone calls and emails with Borders, always identified the suspect as a man and used the pronoun “he.”. But defense attorney Robert Georges said: “Alex is identifying as a woman.”

“She is being held in the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island,” Georges said, referring to the only all women’s prison in the troubled correctional facility. Georges said his client was unable to post bail at the Nov. 6 court proceeding where Borders entered a plea of not guilty to two charges of grand larceny, one charge of fraud and six misdemeanor charges of issuing bad checks.

While prosecutors said the fraud in the indictment covered the period through May, Hollinger Diamonds as recently as July of this year was still firing back angry responses to consumers who reported him to the Better Business Bureau.

Among his victims was a disabled veteran who said she had broken off an engagement and needed cash from the engagement ring and a foreign national who prosecutors said was hired to work for Borders but never paid because the pay checks bounced. She is owed $3,000 prosecutors said.

Prior to the indictment, he had an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau and a long list of complaints from consumers.

Nearly a dozen complaints were on record stretching back to 2023.

“This man and this company is a scam!,’” said one complaint on the BBB web site on July 7. “I emailed and talked on the phone with a ****** and **** in regards to watch I sent over to sell them. They wrote me multiple fake checks and never received the payment or the watch back!”

Two weeks later, a representative from the company insisted: “This consumer presented a watch for sale and the watch did not pass authenticity review. The watch will be insured and returned to the consumer’s address on file, no further action is required.”

But the payment was apparently never made and the watch never returned.

A month earlier, in June, another consumer complained to the BBB: “I sent him the jewelry via mail and he appraised it we came up with a price of $15,000. He sent me a check I deposited it in my bank account and it bounced leaving my account ****** in the red. Then he belittled me threatened me, called me names and then he sent me another check so I thought there was no way he would scam me a second time but he did...”

In a now familiar lament, the consumer said “he told me he was going to mail back my jewelry and he never did, and now I can’t get ahold of him it’s like he vanished.”

The complaints were all filed when Alex Borders was still presumed to be a man and in most of the cases the complaints included angry responses from Borders, but never a check or the return of the jewelry.

Police arrested Borders on Nov. 6. ”As alleged, the victim went to extreme lengths to create a purported diamond company and steal from consumers, magazine publications, and an employee who put in hours of work for zero pay,” said Manhattan D.A Alvin Bragg following Borders’ indictment on Nov. 6.

”The case is now in discovery,” said Borders’ attorney Georges. “We’re going to resolve this case in court.”

Meanwhile, Borders has been unable to post bail and remains in the women’s jail on Rikers Island. He’s not due back in court until Jan. 23, 2025. And thus far, none of the rings, necklaces, watches and other jewels he allegedly stole have been returned.

Efforts to reach Conde Nast for comment were not successful at the time of publication.