GENEVA – A Swiss court on Friday sentenced French-Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz on charges of corrupting foreign public officials and falsifying documents in a trial over his successful attempt to harvest abundant iron ore resources in Guinea , West African nation.
Steinmetz, one of Israel’s wealthiest people, was sentenced to five years in prison and a $ 56.5 million fine.
The case centered on alleged payments of millions of dollars to an ex-wife of a former Guinean president, Lansana Conté, who died in 2008. The trial exposed the dark and complex world of negotiation and fierce competition in the lucrative business mining.
His defense lawyer, Marc Bonnant, said he would “immediately” appeal the decision. Bonnant said his client did not give “a single dollar” to any Guinean regime official during Conté’s presidency.
The prosecutor, Yves Bertossa, told reporters he was “satisfied” with the verdict, and the Swiss transparency group Public Eye welcomed a “historic decision”.
“This conviction of a high-profile business figure not only sends a strong signal to the commodities sector as a whole, but also demonstrates the vital need for Switzerland to finally remedy the legal loopholes that allow such predatory practices,” he said.
Steinmetz, 64, denied the allegations, which date back to the mid-2000s and involved his company, BSG Resources, in pursuit of a rival for mining rights to vast iron ore deposits in the Simandou region in Guinea.
The Geneva prosecutor’s office alleged that Mr. Steinmetz and two other defendants were involved in the corruption of foreign officials and falsifying documents to conceal bribes from authorities and banks. Part of the funds allegedly passed through Switzerland – and the case was investigated in Europe, Africa and the United States.
The Swiss prosecutor’s office said Steinmetz, from 2005, drew up a corruption pact with Conté, who ruled the West African country from 1984 until his death, and his fourth wife, Mamadie Touré, involving the payment of nearly $ 10 million. .
In its lawsuit, the prosecution said that BSG Resources won exploration and exploration licenses in Guinea between 2006 and 2010 in the Simandou region, and that its competitor – the Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto – was deprived of the concessions it held until then in that region.
In 2014, the Guinean government, after a review launched by the democratically elected president, Alpha Condé, accused Mr. Steinmetz’s company of corruption, paying millions of dollars through a representative to Ms. Touré.
Civil society organizations have been lobbying for proposals that would add responsibility to companies based in Switzerland for their actions abroad. One such proposal, which would hold Swiss-based companies responsible for human rights violations and environmental damage by subsidiaries abroad, failed in a referendum last year.