GENEVA (SWITZERLAND) – In what is seen as a landmark judgment in one of the most high-profile cases in the world, a criminal court in Switzerland has found Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz guilty of graft and forgery on Friday. He was sentenced to five years in jail and slapped with a hefty fine.
The verdict came after a two-week trial and it is a blow for Steinmetz, a diamond trader. His pursuit of the world’s richest unexploited deposits of iron ore placed him in the centre of a legal tussle that has sparked investigations and litigations around the globe.
The businessman said he would appeal the ruling, which also included a 50 million Swiss francs ($56.48 million) fine.
“It is a big injustice,” he said in Geneva after the verdict.
He and two others were charged with paying or arranging payment of $10 million in bribes between 2006 and 2010 to Mamadie Toure, one of the wives of former president Lansana Conte to get exploration permits for iron ore deep inside the mountains of Guinea in Africa and forging documents to cover it up through a maze of shell firms and bank accounts.
Toure, who lives in Florida, could not be reached for comment.
All three defendants denied the charges.
Presiding judge Alexandra Banna said Steinmetz and his co-defendants had used fake accounts and attempted to have incriminating documents destroyed to hide their criminal behaviour.
Banna said that Steinmetz had made an immediate profit from the rights to mine and not a cent went to Guinea.
No one from the government in Guinea was immediately available to comment.
Steinmetz, 64, a former Geneva resident who moved back to Israel in 2016, has in the past been ranked as a billionaire and one of Israel’s wealthiest men. Asked by the court to estimate his personal fortune, he said it was $50-80 million.