GEORGE SOROS SUED BY FELLOW BILLIONAIRE IN U.S.$10BIL MINE BRAWL
NEW YORK – Companies controlled by Israeli
mining magnate Beny Steinmetz sued fellow billionaire George Soros, claiming he
cost them at least $10 billion through a defamation campaign that stripped them
of rights to an iron ore deposit in Guinea and other business opportunities
around the world.
Soros funded law firms, transparency groups,
investigators and government officials in Guinea in a coordinated effort to
ensure BSG Resources Ltd. lost the rights to the Simandou deposit in April
2014, BSGR said in a complaint filed Friday in Manhattan federal court.
After
years of BSGR accusing Soros of propagating corruption allegations which
resulted in its loss of Simandou, this is the first time it took direct legal
action against him. In the complaint, BSGR alleges that Soros was driven by a
grudge dating back to 1998 around a business in Russia and his alleged
hostility towards Israel.
“To Soros, Steinmetz’s success, as well as
his active, passionate promotion of Israeli life, business and culture are
anathema,” BSGR said in the complaint. “Soros is also well known for his
long-standing animus toward the state of Israel.”
Soros’s spokesman Michael Vachon didn’t
immediately respond to an email or messages left on his work and mobile phone
outside of regular business hours.
Simandou, hailed by mining companies as the
richest untapped iron ore site in the world, has also been the subject of
numerous court fights. Rio Tinto Group sued Steinmetz, accusing him and BSGR of
conspiring with Vale SA to steal the rights to the deposit. That lawsuit was
thrown out in 2015 by a federal judge in New York. BSGR lawyers demanded
billions of dollars in damages from Rio Tinto in December after Rio announced
that it had informed law enforcement agencies of a $10.5 million consultancy
payment to a friend of Guinea’s president.
BSGR’s former public relations adviser FTI
Consulting LLP in 2013 settled a London lawsuit that claimed it was part of
Soros’s campaign against the mining company. FTI said it didn’t admit any
wrongdoing.
Steinmetz has also been investigated and
questioned by Swiss and Israeli law enforcement officials on suspicions that he
paid bribes to help his company win a stake in Simandou. No charges have been
laid.
Steinmetz and BSGR originally lost their
rights to Simandou, because the Guinean government found that they obtained the
permits after paying millions in bribes, including to Mamadie Toure, the fourth
wife of Guinea’s former president.
The government’s decision was based on
fabricated reports by Soros-funded companies, BSGR said in the complaint. Toure,
who implicated BSGR and Steinmetz, received $50,000 from an adviser to
President Alpha Conde and $80,000 from an “agent or affiliate of Soros,”
according to the complaint.
A spokesman for Conde didn’t answer calls
outside of regular office hours. Toure couldn’t be immediately reached for
comment.
BSGR said its case is supported by an email
from a senior Soros investment executive in New York relating to Guinea’s
interactions with BSGR around their mining contract and information from
witnesses that Soros had personally demanded BSGR be pushed off Simandou.
“Soros’s financial clout gave him power over
Guinea’s processes of government, which he then thoroughly abused,” BSGR said
in the complaint. Soros was “motivated solely by malice, as there was no economic
interest he had in Guinea,” the company said.
The case is BSG Resources (Guinea) Ltd. v.
Soros, 17-cv-02726, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
(Manhattan).
– Bloomberg
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