Sentenced in January 2021 to five years in prison and a fine of 50 million Swiss francs for corruption of public officials in the case of the Guinean mines of the Simandou mountains, the 66-year-old Israeli tycoon intends to obtain his acquittal during the appeal trial. this Monday, August 29.
A judgment of 200 pages and a sentence of five years in prison accompanied by a fine of 50 million Swiss francs. This is the mountain Beny Steinmetz and his lawyers will seek to overthrow. The Israeli billionaire, a time presented as the richest man in his country, is gambling his future on this affair, and the battle promises to be fierce.
Facing the judge of the appeal chamber, Catherine Gavin, Beny Steimetz reshuffled his team. Marc Bonnant, who for seven years fought tooth and nail, retired in favor of two tenors of the Swiss bar, Maîtres Daniel Kinzer and Christian Lüscher. They will try to demonstrate that no corrupt pact took place and that Beny Steinmetz never paid money to the fourth wife of Lansana Conté in order to obtain the mining blocks of the Simandou mountains – they then belonged to the Australian giant Rio Tinto. Between 2006 and 2012, Beny Steinmetz allegedly paid $8.5 million to Mamadie Conté.
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Conspiracy
Alongside this legal strategy, Beny Steinmetz has also redesigned his communication around this trial. While his former lawyer Marc Bonnant limited his contacts with the press, now several communication agencies are distributing a fifteen-page document to the media around the world, aimed at dismantling the arguments of the court of first instance. A document ” full of sophistry “, according to Adrià Budry Carbó, investigative journalist for the NGO Public Eye, specializing in commodities and financial crime.
” The defense will, one imagines, set out to show that it was not Mr. Steinmetz who piloted the company, that the business introducers acted in complete independence, that their income was precisely proof of this independence. and that everything happened according to the rules of the art, predicts the observer. We are being told again the thesis of a great international conspiracy which would be directed against Mr. Steinmetz. However, we see that he has problems with justice in a certain number of jurisdictions. If there is a conspiracy, it is extensive and therefore the defense is expected to bring evidence of the existence of this conspiracy. »
The Geneva Criminal Appeal and Review Chamber will have eight days to determine whether or not this conviction should be reviewed.