January 11, 2021 Update, Jan. 22: Beny Steinmetz and two colleagues were convicted in Geneva on charges related to a bribery scheme. Steinmetz, sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay 50m Swiss francs ($56.5 million), said he will appeal the guilty verdict. Lawyers, bankers and professional advisers in Europe and the United States enabled corruption in one of the world’s poorest countries, Swiss officials allege in a highly-anticipated criminal case that opens today. Prosecutors in Geneva allege that Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz forged documents and masterminded a “corruption pact” over five years to pay millions of dollars in bribes to obtain lucrative mining rights in Guinea, West Africa. Steinmetz and his company, BSG Resources, bribed Mamadie Touré, a wife of Guinea’s then-president, Lansana Conte, to develop the Simandou iron ore mine, prosecutors said in an indictment provided to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.