David Marchant, editor of OffshoreAlert, a magazine about the offshore banking industry, said Tuesday that Brink and Ferguson were the brains behind the elaborate scheme.

He pointed to the pair's use of an appraisal letter backing the value of the ruby as an indication of how bizarre the scheme was. Brink also had a passport from a nonexistent country, the Dominion Melchizedek, and claimed to be its ambassador.