Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz, a well-known strategic adviser and three other businessmen were detained for questioning under caution on Monday over allegedly using fake contracts to move and launder money.
The UK’s anti-fraud investigating body said Monday it is probing Rio Tinto’s dealings in Guinea involving the giant Simandou iron ore project.
e are Israelis and we know how to fight. We are not going to let it go.” Beny Steinmetz’s words to a tribunal in Paris two weeks ago capped a colourful testimony via videolink from Israel.
Asher Avidan was the top official in Guinea for Steinmetz’s BSG Resources, which is accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes in 2008 to win the right to mine part of the West African country’s giant Simandou iron-ore deposit.
BSG Resources, the mining arm of tycoon Beny Steinmetz’s empire, may have to pay as much as $1.2 billion to Vale (NYSE:VALE), its former partner in the massive Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, after choosing to skip a related arbitration hearing in London.
You can’t deny that Beny Steinmetz, the Israeli billionaire who has been Rio Tinto’s bete noire for the best part of a decade, isn’t good for a bit of drama.
Swiss prosecutors will question Beny Steinmetz in Geneva amid an inquiry into allegations of bribery involving a $20 billion mining project in the Simandou hills in the west African country of Guinea.
Israel Police said on Thursday that after a week of negotiations they were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of a bond to be deposited by the billionaire Beny Steinmetz to ensure he doesn’t send assets out of the country while he is under investigation.
Beny Steinmetz, owner of mining group BSG Resources, has been released without charge by Israeli police after being held under house arrest in connection with bribery allegations.
Rio Tinto’s Guinean payment scandal has deepened, with bitter rival Beny Steinmetz threatening to sue for billions of dollars in damages after alleging the leaked emails at the centre of the scandal show Rio had a hand in stripping his company of valuable iron ore tenements in the African nation.