Tough sentence against French-Israeli commodities trader
The Geneva Criminal Court has sentenced commodities trader Beny Steinmetz to five years in prison. The court considers it proven that the 58-year-old acted as a door opener in Africa. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and ordered to pay five million francs in compensation.
At the conclusion of a sensational trial, French-Israeli commodities trader Beny Steinmetz was found guilty last Friday by the Geneva Criminal Court of bribery of foreign public officials and forgery of documents. In its verdict, the court stressed that Steinmetz had "participated in a decisive manner in the corruption scheme."
The affirmations of the defense lawyers played no role in the whole affair, as Pulic Eye writes in a statement. Thus, the Geneva judges sentenced the billionaire to five years imprisonment and to pay compensation of fifty million Swiss francs for bribes of almost ten million dollars to Mamadie Touré, the fourth wife of the ex-president of Guinea Lansana Conté. With this "corruption pact," Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) allegedly secured the concession for the gigantic iron ore deposits of Simandou. Steinmetz's lawyer has already announced an appeal against the verdict.
Example of perfectly lubricated wheels of international corruption
The spectacular trial, which Public Eye attended, shed a "harsh light" on the "perfectly lubricated wheels of international corruption," with one of the world's poorest countries suffering. The trial revealed the devastation wrought by the opaque offshore structures that private individuals, companies and corporations use to conceal their illegitimate or illegal activities in countries with weak rule-of-law structures.
BSGR systematically concealed its corrupt practices via the Geneva-based consulting firm Onyx Financial Advisors. Its then managing director was also in the dock and was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to pay 50,000 Swiss francs. The intermediary of BSGR in Guinea, a Frenchman who was in direct contact with Mamadie Touré, has to serve three years and six months behind bars and pay five million francs to the state. Thus, all three links in this classic chain of corruption were held accountable - something that happens very rarely.
This conviction of a top company official sends a strong signal to the entire extractive industry, Public Eye is convinced. It also underlines the urgency with which Switzerland must close its legal loopholes that facilitate such criminal business practices.
Source: Public Eye
