A Swiss court has dismissed most of the claims in the appeal filed by Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz on his conviction for bribery and fraud but has cut his prison sentence to 18 months.
The press release issued this morning by the Geneva prosecutor's office said that the appeals court had upheld Steinmetz's conviction for "giving a bribe to foreign public officials" but acquitted him on the charge of "fraud and forging corporate documents."
The appeals court also reduced his prison sentence from five years to three years of which he will be required to serve 18 months. The fine of 50 million Swiss francs was also kept unchanged.
Steinmetz's attorney Adv. Eitan Maoz told "Globes," "The Geneva court accepted some of his claims, canceled various clauses of the conviction and reduced the prison sentence handed down by the previous court. We will continue to struggle to prove the innocence of Mr. Steinmetz and we will file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Court against the few charges still remaining."
The appeals procedure was opened in August 2022 after Steinmetz was convicted in January 2021, together with two others, for bribery and fraud. The trial received extensive media coverage in Switzerland as "the most significant ever bribery trial" in the global mining business, which is usually very secretive.
Steinmetz and the others were convicted for paying $8.5 million to people close to Guinea President Lansana Conte in order to receive a license to mine iron ore deposits in the Simandou region - one of the biggest such mines in the world.
According to the court, Steinmetz's BSGR Group, which was incorporated in Geneva, violated the law by transferring the bribe to President Lansana Conte and his fourth wife Mamadie Toure for the concession to mine in Simandou between 2000 and 2010.
Adv. Maoz said, "Mr. Steinmetz is the victim of an ugly false plot, as already proven by the decision of the Israeli prosecutor's office to close the investigation file against him, in his victory in the proceedings against Rio Tinto, in his victory in the proceedings against Brazil's Vale company, and wherever he has been given the factual opportunity to prove the validity of his claims, without political considerations."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 4, 2023.
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