Looting Africa

[Jan Klimkowski]

The G-men have got involved, so presumably someone didn't get paid in this outrageous theft.

Rio Tinto, Guernsey-based billionaires, Soros, military dictatorships - a devil's brew for the C21st.

FBI arrest agent over bribery cover up claim in battle over $10bn mountain

Frenchman is accused destroying evidence of how an Israeli billionaire gained control of a mountain rich in iron ore in Guinea


Ian Cobain
The Guardian, Tuesday 16 April 2013 18.35 BST

Simandou in Guinea. The mountain is said to contain iron ore worth $10bn.

A battle over one of the world's richest mineral deposits has taken a dramatic turn after the FBI announced the arrest of a representative of the billionaire businessman who had acquired it in deal that raised eyebrows, even within the buccaneering world of African mining.

The arrest follows years of bitter claim and counter-claim over Simandou, a mountain in the remote interior of the impoverished west African country of Guinea that is so laden with iron ore that its exploitation rights are valued at around $10bn.

Beny Steinmetz, one of the world's wealthiest men, acquired the rights to extract half the ore at Simandou by pledging to invest just $165m to develop a mine at the mountain. Shortly afterwards, he sold half of his stake for £2.5bn. It was hailed as the most stunning private mining deal for decades: the world's finest untapped iron ore deposit, one worth billions of dollars, had been snapped up for a song.

After the wind of democratic change swept through Guinea, however and after the US justice department decided to mount an investigation into circumstances in which the glittering prize at Simandou changed hands that deal was appearing to look distinctly less attractive.

On Sunday evening, Frederic Cilins, an agent for Steinmetz's company, was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, after federal agents had covertly recorded a series of meetings. The recording shows, it is alleged, that Cilins plotted the destruction of documents which it is claimed could have shown the Simandou exploitation rights were acquired after millions of dollars were paid in bribes to Guinea government officials.

Unknown to either Steinmetz or Cilins, the FBI launched an investigation in January into whether payments allegedly made on behalf of Beny Steinmetz Group Resources, the Guernsey-registered mining arm of the tycoon's business empire that acquired the rights, were in breach of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

According to a statement by an FBI special agent that was filed at the southern district court of New York yesterday, Cilins had been under surveillance during four meetings at Jacksonville airport with an individual who, it is claimed, had agreed to help the agency mount a sting operation. Sources familiar with the investigation say that this person was Mamadie Toure, the widow of Lansana Conté, the dictator who ruled Guinea for 24 years until his death in 2008.

Cilins, a 50-year-old Frenchman, was arrested by FBI agents shortly after the final meeting. He appeared in court on Monday facing three charges: interfering with a witness, obstructing a federal criminal investigation and conspiring to destroy evidence in a federal criminal investigation. The charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years' imprisonment.

According to the FBI agent's filed statement which did not name BSG Resources Cilins had in the past offered to pay $12m in bribes in order to influence the award of mining concessions. He had also paid out several million dollars, and had called the meetings in order to arrange for the destruction of documents concerning bribe payments and mining concessions.

"Cilins repeated the word 'urgently' several times," the statement claims. "Cilins told the CW [co-operating witness] that Cilins was asked to be present in person to witness the documents being burned in order to guarantee that nothing is left behind."

The filed complaint states that a federal grand jury is investigating whether an unnamed mining company and its affiliates on whose behalf it claims Cilins has been working allegedly transferred into the United States bribery money for the valuable mining concessions in Simandou.

After Cilins was remanded in custody, Mythili Raman, the US acting assistant attorney general, said: "The justice department is committed to rooting out foreign bribery, and we will not tolerate criminal attempts to thwart our efforts." BSG Resources confirmed that Cilins had worked for the company. Asked about the arrest and the bribery allegations, a spokesman declined to comment.

While Cilins was flying to Jacksonville last week, Steinmetz was embarking on litigation at the high court in London, accusing Mark Malloch-Brown, the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister and deputy secretary general of the United Nations, of being involved in a smear campaign against BSG Resources. Malloch-Brown and FTI Consulting, the city PR firm he works for, deny the allegation.

Guinea, a former French colony, has almost half of the world's bauxite reserves and significant reserves of iron ore, gold and diamond reserves, but the majority of its 11 million people live in poverty as a result of years of corruption that has deterred many would-be investors.

The rights to extract iron ore from Simandou had been held by Rio Tinto until late 2008 when Conté stripped the Anglo-Australian mining giant of half its stake. Apparently, the president signed the necessary paperwork while on his deathbed, one of the final acts of his dictatorial government. BSG Resources then acquired those rights, agreeing in return to invest $165m to develop what it described as "a world-class integrated mining project".

In April 2010, Steinmetz negotiated to sell half his company's stake a quarter of the mountain's ore to Vale of Brazil, the world's biggest iron ore miner. BSG Resources and Vale formed a joint venture company called VBG which would produce around 2m tons of iron ore a year.

When Vale agreed to pay $2.5bn, one veteran of African mining was quoted in the financial press as saying that Steinmetz had hit "the jackpot". The 57-year-old Israeli tycoon was estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $4bn. But while Steinmetz's corporation defended the deal in which it acquired the rights, others were highly critical: the African telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim, for example, asked publicly: "Are the Guineans who did that deal idiots, or criminals, or both?"

When Guinea's first democratic government was elected later in 2010, Alpha Condé, the new president, began scrutinising the terms of several mining concessions granted under Conté's rule. He focused firmly on the Simandou deal.

With the assistance of one of his advisers, the wealthy investor and philanthropist George Soros, the new president assembled a team of investigators who, it is understood, have unearthed a number of documents that shed light on the way in which the Simandou deal had been sealed.

There were reports that a number of luxury gifts and payments had been made to relatives and associates of Lansana Conté, and to senior officials in the short-lived military dictatorship that followed his death. They included claims that a gold-and-diamond encrusted miniature Formula One car was given to a former government minister. BSG Resources responded to this allegation by saying that the car was worth no more than $2,000, and had been given to the mining ministry, not an individual, in a ceremony that was held in public.

Claims that Conté had been given a diamond-studded gold watch, and that a substantial commission as much as $2.5m had been made to his wife, Mamadie Toure, were flatly denied.

The development of the mine stalled after Conde's election. During talks between BSG Resources, Vale and the government of Guinea which were held in London last month it became clear that the Steinmetz group's control of the Simandou rights were under threat, a situation that the company described as "bizarre".

During the talks, the president of BSG Resources was barred from Guinea, and Vale told its business partner that it would not be paying the $2bn that was outstanding on the $2.5bn deal.

[David Guyatt]

Er,

After the wind of democratic change swept through Guinea, however and after the US justice department decided to mount an investigation into circumstances in which the glittering prize at Simandou changed hands that deal was appearing to look distinctly less attractive.

Unknown to either Steinmetz or Cilins, the FBI launched an investigation in January into whether payments allegedly made on behalf of Beny Steinmetz Group Resources, the Guernsey-registered mining arm of the tycoon's business empire that acquired the rights, were in breach of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

After Cilins was remanded in custody, Mythili Raman, the US acting assistant attorney general, said: "The justice department is committed to rooting out foreign bribery, and we will not tolerate criminal attempts to thwart our efforts."

I repeat again: Er.

Does the US have the legal right to interfere in the affairs of a foreign sovereign nations and foreign nationals, even if corruption may be involved? Or have they passed an act (the foreign corrupt practises act) that allows them to do what they damn well please anywhere in the world, irrespective of international law and sovereignty.

Yep, that seems to be the case to me.

Might it be that Soros wants the action and the huge profits involved?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Does the US have the legal right to interfere in the affairs of a foreign sovereign nations and foreign nationals, even if corruption may be involved? Or have they passed an act (the foreign corrupt practises act) that allows them to do what they damn well please anywhere in the world, irrespective of international law and sovereignty.

Yep, that seems to be the case to me.

[/COLOR]

My Dad always said something similar about the US stripping Muhammed Ali of his world heavyweight title for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War: It's the world heavyweight title, not an instrument of US foreign or domestic policy.

Ali famously said: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Congs..."

Appearing shortly thereafter for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces on April 28, 1967 in Houston, (Muhammed Ali) refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. An officer warned him he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called. As a result, he was arrested and on the same day the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali would not be able to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years.

In reality, Muhammed Ali was a huge danger to the power elites.

As the following quotes prove:

"No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder, kill, and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slavemasters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end."

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"

[Magda Hassan]

Swiss and French police raid offices linked to billionaire Steinmetz

The Guardian understands the raids were requested by the US department of justice, which has been investigating Steinmetz's Simandou mining deal

• Ian Cobain
  
  
• theguardian.com, Friday 30 August 2013 05.17 AEST
  

BSGR's acquisition of mining concessions in Guinea, where millions live in poverty, caused widespread anger. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

Police in Switzerland and France carried out a number of co-ordinated raids on properties linked to one of the world's richest men as part of a global investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding a multibillion dollar mining deal.
Officers in Geneva raided the offices of a firm that provides management services for BSGR, a company controlled by Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz, while in France police raided the home of a director of the management services firm. Up to 20 police raided the offices of Onyx Financial Advisors, according to a security guard quoted by Reuters, and took away a number of documents. The Guardian understands that the raids were mounted at the request of the US department of justice, which has spent more than six months investigating BSGR's acquisition of lucrative mining concessions in the former French colony of Guinea.
Steinmetz, 57, secured the rights to extract half the ore at Simandou after investing $165m in exploration, and then sold half his stake to a Brazilian mining corporation for $2.5bn.
In a country where millions of people live in desperate poverty, without running water, electricity or a functioning infrastructure while sitting on some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, it was a deal that caused widespread anger and resentment.
Shortly after FBI agents began investigating the circumstances surrounding the Simandou deal to establish whether there had been any breach of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti money-laundering laws, an associate of Steinmetz was arrested in Florida.
The FBI had covertly recorded a series of meetings during which the man had allegedly attempted to secure the destruction of documents detailing the way in which the iron ore concession was acquired. He has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and is due to stand trial later in the year. He denies any wrongdoing.
Following the raids in Switzerland and France a spokesman for Onyx said: "Onyx has absolutely nothing to hide. We are co-operating fully with the authorities but are unable to comment further at this time."
The company's chief executive, Dag Cramer, added that the firm had "provided the Swiss authorities with information".
Steinmetz and BSGR deny any wrongdoing over the Simandou deal and say they are the victims of a smear campaign that is being led by the current president of Guinea, Alpha Condé, in an attempt to divert attention from his domestic political problems. Condé, who denies this, is conducting a parallel investigation to that being conducted by the FBI, examining a number of mining deals struck by past governments.
Last month the Guardian reported that Steinmetz was under investigation by the FBI as part of its corruption probe. While researching that article questions put to Steinmetz's spokesman Ian Middleton at the London PR firm Powerscourt twice resulted in threats of libel action from his lawyers at Mishcon de Reya.
Earlier this month Powerscourt also attempted to play down connections between Steinmetz's firm BSGR and Onyx, saying they were "separate and fully independent" of each other. Onyx was originally incorporated as BSG Management Services; the two firms share a number of directors as well as offices in London's Mayfair; and BSGR's website offers Onyx as a point of contact for anyone wishing to invest in BSGR.
Asked whether BSGR and Steinmetz had any comment on the raids in Switzerland and France, Middleton replied: "No they don't."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/au...-steinmetz

[Magda Hassan]

Steinmetz also comes up in these other DPF threads:
https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/sho...ond-Cartel

https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/sho...-in-Kosovo

[Jan Klimkowski]

Steinmetz also comes up in these other DPF threads:
https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/sho...ond-Cartel

https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/sho...-in-Kosovo

Hmmmm - so who hasn't been getting their cut?

From the Kosovo thread:

KOSOVO - Close to midnight on the hot summer day of June 8, the inhabitants of the town of Drenas, in Kosovo, were jolted out of their sleep by a huge explosion. "We thought NATO was bombing again, or that maybe it was an earthquake," a local journalist, Bekim Dobra, recalls. After the initial panic subsided, the residents discovered that no natural disaster had befallen the youngest and poorest country in Europe, nor was a new war suddenly engulfing the Balkans: The explosion had occurred in the nickel mine located only a kilometer from the town. According to the local media, one of the furnaces used to produce metal in the smelting plant nearby blew up, injuring a number of workers and damaging dozens of homes.

The local population knows that the entire complex, known as Ferronikeli - for the iron-nickel alloy it manufactures - is owned by foreign entities: by Cunico, a company owned by the Benny Steinmetz Group (BSG ) Resources, Ltd. firm, and International Mineral Resources (IMR ), which is owned by Alexander Mashkevich, a Kazakh Jew who also holds Israeli citizenship.

(snip)


Riches in the earth

May 3, 2006, was a significant date for the tottering Kosovo economy. On that day, senior members of the local government joined United Nations officials and international and local businessmen at the headquarters of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK ) to celebrate the successful conclusion of the biggest privatization deal signed since the end of the war with Serbia: In return for a payment of 33 million euros, ownership of the nickel mines complex in Drenas was initially transferred to IMR / Alferon, a firm co-owned by the businessmen Alexander Mashkevich, Patokh Chadiev and Alijan Ibragimov. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, the company undertook to invest 20 million euro in the first three years and to employ at least 1,000 workers.

The prime minister of Kosovo, Agim Ceku, stated at the ceremony, according to a report on the website of Eciks Economic Initiative for Kosovo (an organization supporting economic development and foreign investment ), that "the government welcomes the signing of this contract." He added, "This is the beginning of the revival not only of Ferronikeli, but of all of Kosovo's economy. It is the beginning of a significant reduction of unemployment. I expect the investors to meet the obligations of this contract, and they will have the government's support."

That ceremony marked the conclusion of a year-long privatization saga. Initially, a different company had been chosen to buy the mine, the American-Albanian firm of Adi Nikel, which offered about 50 million euros for the Drenas complex. However, the body in charge of privatization in Kosovo, KTA, reversed its decision, claiming the company originally chosen was financially unstable. Instead, the offer made by Alferon was accepted.

Former employees of the mine demonstrated against the new decision, which they alleged was politically motivated; sources at Adi Nikel hinted at corruption in the decision-making process. The Eciks organization quoted a memo by Adi Nikel spokesman Muhamet Jaku to the effect that Kosovo Minister of Industry Bujar Dugolli had asked for 3 million euros as a condition to win the Ferronikeli tender - a million euros each for Dugolli himself, for the prime minister at the time, Bajram Kosumi, and for their political party. "This is just slander," Dugolli retorted.

Ultimately, the mining and smelting complex went to Cunico, which is half owned by Mashkevich and his associates at IMR, and half by BSG Resources, Ltd., which is fully owned by BSG.

Even though BSG bears the name of the Israeli tycoon Benny Steinmetz, he is not listed as its owner. Over the years his spokespersons have consistently emphasized that he is not involved in the decision-making.

In regard to this article, too, a spokesman reiterated that Steinmetz is not the group's owner and does not control it, so he should not be connected to events at the Kosovo mine (see box ). Nevertheless, BSG's website states that "the business activities ... are managed by various entities owned (directly or indirectly ) by the Balda and Vessna Foundations, of which Benny Steinmetz and his issue are members of the class of beneficiaries."

Indeed, financial newspapers and the business world treat the group as a corporation that is controlled by Steinmetz, and based on its market capitalization, he is considered one of the world's wealthiest people.

Cunico, one of the corporation's assets, is, according to its website, "an international mining and metals company, specializing in the exploration, mining and manufacture of ferronickel. We are the largest ferronickel manufacturer in Europe and the fourth largest in the world." The company's headquarters are in Holland; its marketing unit operates out of Dubai.