Vale Closed Its Eyes to Corruption Allegations, Says Steinmetz

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Beny Steinmetz has thrown Vale SA's charge of fraud back in its face, claiming the Brazilian mining giant was well aware of allegations that the Guinean mining rights it agreed to buy had been secured illegally.

Steinmetz and five other associates linked to his company BSGR have been accused by Vale of facilitating contracts to Guinea's Simandou mine worth billions of dollars that were alleged to be obtained with bribes.

Lawyers for Steinmetz, 65, accused Vale of being “prepared to take the risk” in exchange for stopping rivals including Rio Tinto Group from expanding there, according to documents prepared for the hearing.

“They are not the innocent victims of corruption,” Justin Fenwick, Steinmetz's lawyer, said at London's Hight Court on Tuesday.

“There was a single-minded determination by Vale to obtain access” and to “turn a blind eye to their own awareness, as recorded by their own documents, of the allegations of corruption,” said Fenwick.

Vale's lawyers deny the allegations and said it “knew nothing of any such matters at the time” and didn't “for a very substantial period thereafter,” according to its court documents.

‘Sham' due diligence

The trial, expected to last 11 weeks, represents the latest chapter in a 12-year-old saga about control of one of the planet's richest mineral deposits. It's also a fresh legal drama for Steinmetz, who was convicted by a Swiss court of bribery over the Simandou rights a year ago.

Lawyers for the Israeli businessman are also claiming that Vale planned to split from BSGR and negotiate with the Guinean government to secure the sole rights. This plan included an allegedly “sham” due diligence exercise that Vale would use to shelter behind, Steinmetz's lawyers have argued.

Vale's lawyers said it was “implausible” the due diligence, undertaken by lawyers at a top London law firm could have been false.

“The last thing they would do would be to engage specialist lawyers and investigators to conduct professional” investigations, Vale's lawyer Sonia Tolaney said in court documents.