Diamond magnate gets 5 years in prison in Swiss corruption trial
Issued on: 3 min
Geneva (AFP)
French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz was sentenced by a Geneva court on Friday to five years behind bars for corruption linked to mining rights deals in Guinea.
Steinmetz stood accused of setting up a complex financial web, including a system of front companies, to pay bribes so that Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) could obtain permits in an area estimated to contain the world s biggest untapped deposits of iron ore. It is clear from what has been presented. that the rights were obtained through corruption and that Steinmetz cooperated with others to obtain them, said chief justice Alexandra Banna.
Steinmetz sentenced to 5 years in jail in Swiss bribery case
Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz has been at the centre of an international investigation into alleged bribery to win mining rights in Guinea. (
Israeli diamond and mining tycoon Beny Steinmetz was found guilty of bribing a public official to secure an iron-ore mine in Guinea worth billions of dollars.
Steinmetz was sentenced to five years by Judge Alexandra Banna in a Geneva court Friday. He was partially acquitted on forgery charges in the case.
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Steinmetz and two colleagues were convicted of paying bribes of $8.5 million to Mamadie Toure, the wife of Guinea’s deceased former president Lansana Conte to help secure rights to the giant Simandou iron-ore mine.
Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz has been found guilty of corruption in Switzerland in a dispute over the world s richest untapped deposits of iron ore.
Steinmetz, who made his name in the diamond business, was indicted in August 2019 by a Geneva prosecutor over deposits at the Simandou mine in Guinea.
On Friday, judges found him guilty of corrupting foreign agents and forging documents, sentencing him to five years in jail and a fine of $56million. Steinmetz and two aides had been accused of paying, or having paid, $10 million in bribes to obtain exploration permits for Simandou and of forging documents to cover it up through a web of shell companies and bank accounts.
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Beny Steinmetz found guilty of corruption
Swiss court sentenced Israeli billionaire to five years National / TRD Staff
A Geneva court has found Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz guilty of corruption.
Steinmetz, who is reported to be a silent backer of New York real estate, was sentenced to five years in jail for paying bribes to a Guinean public official in order to secure rights to an iron-ore mine.
The official, Mamadie Toure, is the wife of Guinea’s late former president, Lansana Conté. Steinmetz’s lawyer denied the tycoon had been involved in any payment, according to Bloomberg News.
Beny Steinmetz found guilty of bribery in Swiss trial
Mr Steinmetz has always denied allegations of wrongdoing and said he will appeal the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court
22 January 2021 • 7:52pm
Diamond tycoon Beny Steinmetz has been convicted of paying bribes to gain lucrative mining rights and sentenced to five years in prison.
The 64-year-old and two co-defendants were found guilty in a Swiss court of variously paying or arranging payment of $8.5m (£6.2m) in bribes to Mamadie Toure, said to be a wife of the late Guinean president Lansana Conte, to secure rights to the iron ore-rich Simandou region in Guinea.