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Israeli diamond billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining arm Beny Steinmetz Resource Group (BSGR) has started legal proceedings against former press adviser FTI Consulting.
BSGR is suing FTI and former FTI chairman and UN deputy secretary general Lord Mark Malloch Brown on various claims, including inducing breach of contract, defamation and “conspiracy to withhold a conflict of interest”, the mining company said in a statement on Thursday April 11.
US-based press advisory consultancy giant FTI Consulting dropped BSGR as a client in November 2012.
FTI could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
BSGR has alleged that Lord Malloch Brown passed on confidential information about BSGR to billionaire financier and philanthropist, George Soros.
BSGR is also in the midst of an ongoing dispute with the Guinean government over its licence for Blocks 1 & 2 of Simandou, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits.
Guinea is reviewing BSGR’s licence as part of sweeping mining reforms instituted by the country’s first democratically elected leader, President Alpha Conde. George Soros is an adviser to President Conde.
The impoverished West African nation revealed its revamped mining code on Monday April 8, cutting taxes and royalties in a bid to make the country more investor friendly. Transparency and anti-corruption terms were highlighted in the code for immediate application.
The Beny Steinmetz Group, which houses the natural resources subsidiary, is a privately owned conglomerate that has made more than $3.5 billion in revenues in each of the past three years. Steinmetz has been named by Bloomberg as Isreal’s richest man.
Michelle Madsen mmadsen@steelfirst.com Twitter: @mmadsen_SF