GENEVA: Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz went on trial in a Geneva court on Monday on corruption and forgery charges linked to mining concessions in the West African nation of Guinea.
Steinmetz was indicted in August 2019 by a Geneva prosecutor who accused him and two aides of paying or having $10 million in bribes paid to obtain exploration permits for some of the world’s richest iron-ore deposits.
Steinmetz and his aides deny the charges. If convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison.
Steinmetz’s lawyer, Marc Bonnant, told the three-judge panel that his client should not face charges.
The 64-year-old, a former Geneva resident who moved back to Israel in 2016, is attending the two-week trial in person.
Swiss prosecutors allege Steinmetz and his aides won the rights to mine the lucrative iron-ore vein in Guinea’s remote Simandou mountain range by bribing Mamadie Toure, one of the wives of the former Guinean President Lansana Conté, between 2006 and 2010, and that they…