Swiss court rejects Israeli mining tycoon’s appeal against jail time in graft case
Beny Steinmetz was found guilty in 2023 of bribing Guinean officials for mining rights, received three-year sentence, half of which was suspended
GENEVA, Switzerland — A Swiss court has rejected a bid by French-Israeli magnate Beny Steinmetz to scrap his jail sentence in a graft case over mining rights in Guinea.
The mining tycoon was found guilty by a Geneva appeals court in April 2023 of paying bribes to Guinean officials to secure mining rights in the southeastern Simandou region, which is estimated to contain one of the world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposits.
Steinmetz, who made his fortune in diamonds, was found to have set up a complex financial web to pay bribes to ensure his company could obtain permits.
He received a three-year prison sentence, half of which was suspended, but the sentence was frozen pending an appeal to Switzerland’s top court.
In September, Steinmetz’s lawyers asked for the sentence to be scrapped, pointing to previously unpublished documents indicating what they said were serious breaches by the prosecution.
The documents drawn from Israeli investigations included email exchanges with Swiss authorities showing illegal actions by Geneva prosecutor Claudio Mascotto, who was initially in charge of the investigation, they said.
Among other things they charged that Mascotto had “unlawfully granted immunity to a witness in exchange for testimony against Beny Steinmetz.”
But the regional Geneva court tasked with reviewing the request rejected all of the arguments put forward by the Steinmetz team, finding among other things that talk of immunity had been “theoretical” and no guarantee had been given.
In its ruling, dated November 15 and made public Thursday, it said, “The complaint based on a guarantee of immunity is unfounded.”
“The court declares inadmissible the request for review” of the appeals court verdict.
Steinmetz’s lawyers denounced a “shocking decision,” which they said in a statement “amounts to a denial of reality.”
They vowed to appeal the review decision to Switzerland’s highest court, where their appeal against the verdict itself is also pending.
Steinmetz, who has faced legal woes in multiple countries, was initially convicted in Switzerland in the case in January 2021.
He was accused of leading the charge to bribe a wife of former Guinean president Lansana Conte and others to win the lucrative mining rights.
The prosecution says Steinmetz obtained the rights shortly before Conte died in 2008 after about $10 million was paid in bribes over a number of years.
Conte ordered global mining giant Rio Tinto to relinquish two concessions that were subsequently obtained by Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) against an investment of $160 million.
Just 18 months later, BSGR sold 51 percent of its stake in the concession to Brazilian mining giant Vale for $2.5 billion.
But in 2013, Guinea’s first democratically elected president Alpha Conde launched a review of permits allotted under Conte and stripped the VBG consortium, formed by BSGR and Vale, of its permit.
