Local salespeople fail to disclose composite nature of gems It was fall 2008 and the holiday sales rush loomed, Cortney Balzan recalled. That’s when he said he felt forced to confront one of America’s largest retailers and warn it that it might be misleading its customers. For a quarter century, Balzan, an independent gemologist, had been responsible for the quality oversight, appraisal and repair of the precious gemstones that Macy’s West, the San Francisco based West Coast division of Macy’s, sold in its stores. But beginning in 2007 and continuing throughout 2008, Balzan discovered that gems arriving for distribution and...