A judge heard the first of several ownership claims for an enormous emerald valued at upward of $400 million that has spawned a legal case as tangled as the jungles in eastern Brazil where it was unearthed almost a decade ago. Anthony Thomas, who claims to be the 840-pound gem?s first buyer, tried to convince Superior Court Judge John A. Kronstadt on Friday that none of the half-dozen or so other claimants has a right to the so-called Bahia Emerald. The soft-spoken businessman took the stand for several hours to stake his claim that he bought the boulder-sized gem in 2001 for just $60,000 soon after it was pulled from a mine in the jungles of Brazil?s Bahia state. He said he wired money to the emerald?s Brazilian owners, but it never arrived. Instead, he said he was tricked into believing it had been stolen so it could be sold to someone else for more money. ?In my mind, I was the owner when I agreed to pay them,? Thomas, 47, told the court. The emerald is a hulking brute of a gem, with several thick green rods the size of a man?s forearms jutting out of a stone base. ? AP __
