It is a good thing that the world of international bribery and corruption is real because, if it was fiction, no one would believe it. In that group is certainly the tale of Beny Steinmetz and his company BSG Resources (BSGR). BSGR has been accused and vehemently denied paying bribes to obtain a huge mining concession in Guinea. The allegations involved BSGR winning the multibillion mining concession for the Simandou iron-ore mine in the country of Guinea, which was awarded to the company at the end of the reign of the country’s former dictator Lansana Conté, before he died in 2008. According to a report prepared by the current government of Guinea, BSGR won the contract by paying bribes to his fourth wife Mamadie Touré in the form of cash and shares “to help ensure those rights were stripped from Anglo-Australian miner Rio-Tinto and granted to BSGR.”
