George Soros Enmeshed in Bribery Scandal

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Front Page Magazine:

Billionaire financier George Soros has enmeshed himself in a growing bribery scandal in the West African country of Guinea. A government committee backed by Soros is investigating Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR), the mining component of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s business empire. The government is probing how BSRG won rights to develop iron ore mining blocks in the Simandou region of the nation. In turn, the company has accused the government of Guinea of seeking to “illegally seize” its assets.

The blocks in question had been taken by Lansana Conté, whose 24-year dictatorship ended with his death in late 2008, from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto was stripped of half its rights to Simandou after the government claims it missed development deadlines. Those licenses were passed to BSGR in 2008. In 2010, BSGR sold a 51 percent stake of its mining interests in Guinea to Vale of Brazil, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, for a large profit. The companies formed a joint venture to exploit Simandou, a hilly and forested tract located in the southeast part of the nation, estimated to hold what could be the world’s largest unexploited iron ore reserves. Yet because of that location, over 400 miles from the coast of Guinea, it will take a $10 billion investment to exploit those assets.