Why Was Millionaire Beny Steinmetz Arrested in Greece? Is Beny Steinmetz’s billion-dollar net worth the result of his deception? Despite having a business, the Israeli businessman is suspected of fraud.
Illegal mining is defined as any operation carried out without an authorization from the state, particularly in the lack of land rights, mining licenses, or mineral transport permits.
The International Criminal Police Organization, also known as Interpol, issued a red alert to Beny Steinmetz. Beny Steinmetz Group Resources is his company.
What Is Beny Steinmetz Net Worth In 2021?
Beny Steinmetz is a diamond tycoon and an advisor to the BSGR Board of Directors. BSGR is involved in the activity in the fields of oil & gas, mining, metal.
Rich white guys never pay from crimes in Africa, right? A hopeful sign: 5year prison sentence for French-Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz. He paid huge bribes to control world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposit, in Guinea. He must pay Guinea €46million https://t.co/SpmJGMVo48 pic.twitter.com/Md5HglXxEx
— James Hall (@hallaboutafrica) January 25, 2021
As of 2021, the businessman’s estimated net worth is $1 billion. He went to Belgium in 1978 and started a diamond business founding Steinmetz Diamond Group along with his brother.
He was born in 1956 in Netanya, Israel, however, he also holds French citizenship and called himself an “international Israeli.” He moved around different countries for business.
His iron ore mining efforts in Guinea started in 2008 had erupted into a political and legal battlefield. He sold 51 percent of the mining rights to Brazilian multinational Vale.
The business tycoon sold it for $2.5 billion in 2010, but by February 2016, he collected only $500 million. Rio Tinto sued BSGR in New York, but it asked to halt the proceedings.
Steinmetz was kept under house arrest in Israel in connection to bribery allegations against him related to BSGR’s project in Guinea. But BSGR disagrees with the allegations.
He is also a member of Metals & Mining. Wikipedia covers him on its official page, and you can go through it to know more about the businessman and his detail.
Meet Beny Steinmetz Wife, Agnes
Beny Steinmetz is married to his wife, Agnes. The couple has four kids together. They together started the Agnes and Beny Steinmetz Foundation for philanthropy reasons.
The foundation donates to schools, hospitals, army units, and the arts in Israel. It was formed in 2017 which primarily contributied in education, healthcare, and culture for kids.
In 2016, the foundation held a festive event to celebrate a decade of giving. Besides, there is no detail on the couple when they got married and how they are as a married couple.
What Are Beny Steinmetz Arrest Charges?
He was detained at that Athens airport for transferring data on uplifting the red notice by Interpol that Romania requested. He was convicted of land deals fraud.
#Mining billionaire Beny Steinmetz held in Greece https://t.co/yMAPQ0gJF3 via @CeciliaJamasmie
— mining (@mining) December 9, 2021
The Romanian Supreme court convicted him of fraud. Interpol enforced him five years of imprisonment, but his detention was canceled all over European countries.
The reason for his detention in Greece is because of a serious breakdown in removing the notice from border controls in Europe. His legal representative Adv. Eitan is handling the case.
Israeli minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz Once convicted of corruption
The Israeli diamond and minerals magnate Beny Steinmetz has been convicted of corrupting foreign agents and forging documents by a Geneva court, in a trial over an attempt to reap lavish iron ore resources in Guinea.
Steinmetz, considered by some to be Israel’s richest man, was sentenced to five years in prison but had faced a maximum of 10 years in the case.
He was also ordered to pay a $50m fine. His defence lawyer, Marc Bonnant, said he would appeal.
Steinmetz, 64, had denied the charges. The plot, dating to the mid-2000s, involved Steinmetz’s BSGR Group squeezing out a rival for mining rights for vast iron ore deposits in Guinea’s southeastern Simandou region.
The case centered on alleged payouts of millions to a former wife of late president Lansana Conte, and exposed the shady and complex world of deal-making and cutthroat competition in the lucrative mining business.
Wearing a mask and flanked by his lawyers, Steinmetz – who has French and Israeli citizenship – calmly listened and jotted down notes as the judge, Alexandra Banna, read the facts of the case and the verdict over two hours. Attendance in the Geneva courtroom was limited due to Covid-19 concerns.
The Geneva prosecutor’s office alleged that Steinmetz and two other defendants engaged in corruption of foreign officials and falsification of documents to hide the paying of bribes from authorities and banks. Some of the funds allegedly passed through Switzerland – and the case has been investigated in Europe, Africa and the United States.
The prosecutor’s office said Steinmetz, starting in 2005, set up a corrupt deal with Conte, who ruled the West African country from 1984 until his death in 2008, and his fourth wife, Mamadie Toure, involving the payment of nearly $10 million.
In its court filing, the prosecutor’s office said BSGR won exploration and exploitation licences in Guinea between 2006 and 2010 in the Simandou region, and its competitor – Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto – was “deprived between July and December 2008 of concessions it had up to then held in the Simandou North blocs 1 and 2.”
Swiss transparency group Public Eye said Steinmetz employed “opaque structures” to hide the allegedly corrupt schemes that were managed from Geneva, where he lived until 2016.
The group said the case showed how tax havens can be used to conceal questionable, “even illegal” activities in countries with weak governance and regulation.
