OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S GUINEA MINING DEAL HURTS AMERICAN BUSINESSES

[Geee]

Human Events:

A secret business deal between the government of Guinea and a multinational firm with a U.S. partner aided by the Obama administration’s wrongheaded foreign policy could cost American businesses billions. Congress ought to investigate to protect American investors, expose any political shenanigans and prosecute the guilty.

The London Sunday Times first cracked the story June 3 of the secret $25 million loan between an offshore company, Palladino Capital 2, and the cash-strapped West African country. The funds, according to the loan agreement, were to finance the start-up of Guinea’s state mining company, Heritage, but the cash allegedly disappeared and the terms of the loan include a default clause which gives the lender a juicy 30 percent stake of Guinea’s mushrooming mining assets.

A thirty percent share is especially significant given Guinea’s new mining code engineered by advisors billionaire trader George Soros and Palladino’s South African owner Walter Hennig. The 2011 code gives 15 percent of all mining assets to Heritage, including another 20 percent at market rates. That means foreign mining operators forfeit billions of dollars in assets and profits atop an 8 percent customs tax.

Further, the $25 million loaned by Hennig’s Palladino, according to former Guinean mines minister Mahmoud Thiam who spoke with South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, was a quid pro quo — a bribe — in return for Guinea President Alpha Conde’s campaign support.

Perhaps word the money was for a political payoff prompted Palladino’s May 24 loan recall. Or the recall could be part of the secret deal to cash in on the loan by claiming a 30 percent share of Heritage, but now the cat is out of the bag.

Mohamed Fofana, the current minister of mines and the official who signed the 2011 loan with Palladino, rejects the allegations. He claims the money went to Heritage Company, not Guinea’s government coffers and it is in the bank waiting to be invested. He also rejects the allegation he ever agreed to “a $25 million loan in exchange for a third of our mineral resources.”

[Pepper]

@Geee

 

 

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S GUINEA MINING DEAL HURTS AMERICAN BUSINESSES

 

I don't see how this is news.... this is par for the course of this administration.