Diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz detained in Greece on international arrest warrant
Israeli billionaire sought by Romanian and Swiss authorities after being convicted and sentenced to prison in absentia in two separate mass corruption cases
ATHENS, Greece — French-Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz has been detained in Athens on an international warrant, but was conditionally freed, a Greek judicial source said Thursday.
Last January, a Swiss court sentenced the 65-year-old billionaire diamond magnate in absentia to five years in prison and a fine of 50 million Swiss francs ($52 million) for bribing public officials to obtain access to mining rights in Guinea.
And prior to that, Steinmetz — together with political adviser Tal Silberstein — was sentenced in absentia in Romania to five years in jail each after being found guilty of “the creation of an organized criminal group” in a property-related case that dates back to 2006-2008, which cost the Romanian state an estimated 135 million euros ($152 million).
It was Bucharest that had issued the international arrest warrant.
Steinmetz was detained entering Greece on November 24 from Israel on a private jet and the judicial source said he was released on condition that he remain in the country pending an investigation.
In the Geneva case, Steinmetz is accused of having set up a complex financial web, including a system of front companies, in order to pay bribes — partly through Swiss accounts — so that Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) could obtain mining permits in Guinea’s southeastern Simandou region.
The area is estimated to contain the world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposits.
