From the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, May 21:
Mining magnate Beny Steinmetz has lost a major case against the West African nation of Guinea, after an arbitration court ruled his company bribed a former dictator’s wife with tens of millions of dollars to obtain valuable mining rights and then engaged in a cover-up.
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Paris – a World Bank arbitration tribunal – decided against Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR) on Wednesday, eight years after the company launched a complaint alleging that Guinea had wrongfully canceled its rights to one of the world’s largest iron ore concessions.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the Claimants obtained their mining rights for Blocks 1 and 2 through corrupt practices,” ICSID arbitrators concluded in the ruling seen by OCCRP. BSGR obtained the rights to huge untapped deposits of iron ore in Guinea’s remote Simandou mountain range in December 2008.
ICSID found that BSGR paid millions of dollars in bribes to officials to obtain the concessions. Over $9 million of this went to Mamadie Toure, the wife of former President Lansana Conté. The ruling says that BSGR arranged the payments through intermediaries, a claim the company denied....
....MUCH MORE
There are a couple very interesting wrinkles in the Guinea story which may trigger a sense of déjà vu for folks who remember the saga of Roșia Montană.More to come.
But they have not yet seen the light of day.
Another bit o'Beny's skullduggery:"Mining Billionaire Gets Help From Ex-Spies in Bitter Legal Fight" (VALE)
No, silly, not Steele and Deripaska these guys are even worse.*
