b&h photo : diamond importer?

What's up chica.

Nothing ever goes as planned, eh? As i wrote before, i was planning on purchasing my camera from b&h last friday (aka payday), but then a couple things happened and goddamnit.
So. Friday. I'm on bhphoto.com, my camera is in stock, and i have the money in the bank. But i'm impatient. I WANT MY CAMERA LIKE NOW! So i have the bright idea of printing out the webpage and driving over to our local camera dude. I'll walk in, the camera will be in stock, then i'll demand that he meets b&h's prices. A perfect no-waiting plan.
I make the 6-minute drive and park. Then i remember that i'm not a complete asshole and fold the printed webpage and slip it into my purse. I figure I'll go in, see if he even has it, feel him out, then spring the Gimme-A-Deal print-out on him. Definitely didn't happen that way.

"local camera dude" is a man named Richard who owns Monterey Bay Photo Mart.
He owns and operates his store, and his is definitely the face you are going to see no matter what day you shop there. He and his store are basically the opposite of b&h. He's small, he's local, he'll be there in-person to help me out should I need it. I have a soft spot for that kind of shit, what with my Environmental-Studies-UCSC-Farmer's-Market-Fair-Trade-Buy-Local background.
Whatever. So I ended up ordering it through his store Monday evening. Maybe I'll have it in my hands this friday...

The interesting part of all this is what Richard told me about b&h. They are setting price standards within the resale industry by selling equipment so cheaply. As with any reseller, b&h buys the epuipment from the manufacturer and then resells it to the consumer. The common business plan is to resell it for a profit, but not so with b&h. According to Richard, they actually sell the equipment for less than they buy it. Makes no sense, right?
Richard knows the owner of another camera shop who matched b&h's prices for an entire year. They lost $50,000 because of it, showing that b&h does lose money on their camera business.
As he is telling me this, I am just totally confused. Then he says, "Well b&h has other sources of income." So I ask him what that could be, and he says "Well, they're the second largest diamond importer in the united states."

HUH?!

All of this of course is what I heard from Richard, but he said that b&h uses their photo/video/audio customers as "the bank" because using the real bank costs $. They undersell their cameras, losing, say $100 on a sale, then they place the money from your purchase into their diamond business. There, they turn a 400% profit overnight.
Good for them of course...
But why? Fuck, if you're in the camera business, why do you need to be in the diamond business, too?
Money.
Duh.
I just carry this feeble hope that maybe people would have moral standards to not ruin one industry (local camera shops) simply to make money through another, completely unrelated field. Especially when diamonds are so strewn with controversy...

Well, after this whole tirade i supppose i should let you know that i haven't been able to verify any of this for myself. I spent considerable time googling phrases like "bh diamond import" and "h schreiber diamond" but to no immediate avail... The closest I came was one comment on some Texas fishing website by a guy who also thought diamonds were the Schreiber's first business, and b&h their second (http://www.2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showpost.php?p=1533000&postcount=4) . I highly doubt that we have anyone else reading this site, but hell, if you are some random person and happen to know whether any of this is true or false, please leave a comment. Lemme know if you happen to discover anything, autie.

Anyway, camera. In my hands. With any luck, before next wednesday. Which means pictures! For you!

Love ya!