Israeli police holds ex-Rosia Montana shareholder Beny Steinmetz

Israeli police detained billionaire Benjamin “Beny” Steinmetz, Reuters reported on Monday. Steinmetz, one of Israel’s richest men, and an advisor to mining company BSG Resources (BSGR), was a shareholder in the now abandoned Rosia Montana mining project.

“This development is in the aftermath of ongoing and what BSGR believes to be obsolete investigations surrounding bribery and corruption against BSGR,” BSGR said in a statement, adding it denies the allegations.

According to BSGR, the investigations were initiated by the government of Guinea with support from the international police organizations in the United States, Britain and Switzerland.

The Israeli billionaire is also wanted in Romania by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), in a case involving the illegal restitution of a forest near Bucharest. In March this year, prosecutors said they wanted to place Steinmetz in preventive arrest alongside three other businessmen involved in the same case – Tal Silberstien (who was hired in the past as political consultant in Romania), Shimon Shevez and Moshe Agavi. Steinmetz become famous in Romania due to his involvement in the Rosia Montana mining project. His companies hold stakes in Gabriel Resources, the firm that wanted to build a massive gold and silver mine in western Romania.

BSG Capital, which is controlled by the billionaire, had a 16 percent stake in Gabriel Resources, according to data as of March 2015 that are posted on the firm’s website.

Rosia Montana Gold Corporation had secured a mining license close to 20 years ago. In 2013, the government attempted to push the project for approval in Parliament but the project was stopped. Some amendments to the mining legislation were rejected so last year the company has started an arbitration case against Romania at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

On May 18, Remus Truica, Prince Paul and other 20 suspects, including Tal Silberstein, Beny Steinmetz, Agavi Moshe, Marius Marcovici and jurnalistul Dan Andronic, were prosecuted for the illegal resitution of Baneasa farm and of 47 hectares in the Snagov Forest, near Bucharest.