Israel Police plan to question another senior executive in Beny Steinmetz's group of companies on suspicion of involvement in the alleged bribery and money laundering affair featuring the Israeli billionaire, sources inform "Globes." The sources said that the executive worked at Scorpio Real Estate Ltd. (TASE: SCRP.B1), a company controlled by Steinmetz. Steinmetz was questioned by the authorities in Romania, who are conducting an investigation concurrently with the one taking place in Israel. The executive recently landed in Israel, and is scheduled for interrogation about alleged offenses attributed to Steinmetz in Romania.
Steinmetz, who is currently under house arrest and barred from leaving Israel, was first arrested in December 2016 and questioned on suspicion of giving a bribe amounting to tens of millions of dollars to previous Guinean President Lansana Conté and his wife in exchange for iron mining licenses, which allegedly generated profits totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for the Israeli businessman in 2006-2012.
Two weeks ago, just before a scheduled trip abroad, Steinmetz was arrested again, this time on suspicion of having made a fictitious transaction in Romania in which money was transferred for payment of a bribe. It is suspected that the land for the fictitious deal, for which a well-known businessman paid €9 million, was actually worth €3 million, with €6 million being paid into a "petty cash fund" used to transfer a bribe to various parties around the world. Among other things, €1.5 million was allegedly transferred to Conde's wife.
Additional suspects questioned in the affair include strategic consultant Tal Silberstein, who is suspected of involvement in land fraud in Romania; and Shimon Menachem, former CEO of Scorpio, which invested in many projects in Eastern Europe, mostly in Romania and Russia. Menachem was detained and questioned on his arrival in Israel from overseas last week. Also questioned in the affair were Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) acting chairman David Granot, Advocate Levy from the Amit, Pollak, Matalon law firm, and Advocate Asher Avidan, president of the BSG Resources mining company.
Steinmetz denies all the allegations against him, claiming that the deals in Romania were proper. He says that he has been framed, and that all the proceedings against him are a rehash of an old proceeding led by the Guinean government after current President Alpha Conde's rise to power in order to illegally deprive Steinmetz's companies of their mining rights. The other suspects also deny the allegations.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 31, 2017
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