GLOBAL MINING OBSERVER Issue 106 INDEPENDENT COVERAGE OF THE MINING MARKETS November 2014 Mahmoud Thiam: Guinea’s $200m Technocrat from UBS The following is an account of the Agnelli. “A guy can marry a former Simandou affair by Guinea’s former hooker and only discover years later mining minister. It is not intended to that his wife used to be a prostitute,” reflect the opinions of all sides to Agnelli has since said of his dealings in Rio Tinto’s current lawsuit. the country. Rio says Thiam took a $200m bribe A MAN MUST FIND HIMSELF in a from Steinmetz, using the proceeds to very special position before he is able buy a country estate and an apartment to deny accepting a $200m bribe. in Manhattan. As minister, he took to Mahmoud Thiam’s life and career has speeding a Lamborghini around never been dull. Guinea’s capital Conakry, according to Born in Guinea, Thiam left when he reports, collecting suitcases of cash was seven in the early 1970s, after his from corporate jets and distributing father, a banker, was murdered by them to military leaders. Guinea’s dictatorship. He went to live with his uncle, a diplomat for the UN, Testing the Water moving from country to country and studying at French-speaking schools. Thiam chuckles at the charges, but Academically he flourished and is clearly perplexed. Guinea’s former gained a place at Cornell, studying president never set foot in his house, agricultural economics, before starting he says, and the pair have never had “a venture with some partners” in New dinner together. The flat in Manhattan York. The firm was licensed to trade pending and were afraid that our language of the markets. His response was meanwhile paid for in 2006. GLOBAL MINING OBSERVER is a mining news bulletin. To receive future issues as they are released email: [email protected] agricultural commodities on behalf of business would get harmed if Merrill was, ‘Why don’t you recommend some- BSGR has been repeatedly accused the US commerce department, he could not deploy the resources, so one you think you can work with?’” of “flipping” its half of Simandou to explains, in competition with EU when we felt Merrill being a little Thiam says he put forward three Vale, construed as proof of corruption, subsidy programs. hesitant, we contacted the banks that candidates for the ministry, but the though Rio has also admitted it was in After a “catastrophic business had been courting us and put them in military insisted to Komara that Thiam negotiations with Vale, holding a string transaction” involving Angola, Thiam competition.” take the role himself. “I rejected him. of meetings in New York. left and joined Merrill Lynch. “I rose The move was so lucrative for It took three weeks of going back and Most bizarre, is that Thiam was not fairly quickly,” he says. “I think it was Thiam and his team that his secretary forth and I finally accepted. It was even mining minister when Rio more by luck and circumstance than by is said to have earned $500,000 in the absolutely unexpected. It was even very publicly announced it had been my own merit I guess, but I was lucky subsequent transfer to UBS. unwelcome if I might say.” stripped of its rights, nor when they enough to develop my business very were awarded to BSGR. The ministers fast at Merrill.” Flying to Guinea Rio Tinto responsible for the decision went Thiam built his own investment unnamed in Rio’s charges because they banking team that became largely By the time he left Merrill Lynch, In the final six months of the have since returned to power under the autonomous, jumping from debt mining, oil and gas was Thiam’s main former president’s regime, Rio Tinto’s presidency of Alpha Conde, Thiam restructuring to telecoms after Russia’s business, but his banking career on rights to half of its multi-billion tonne contends. debt crisis in ’98, before expanding Wall Street was cut short when he was Simandou iron ore deposit, deep in into commodity-backed finance and invited in 2008 to become Guinea’s Guinea’s interior, had been stripped Information & Belief advisory work for finance ministries, mining minister. from the group and awarded to BSGR, central banks and “arch-business “An individual who knew of me and the private mining arm of diamond Rio’s evidence appears to rest on a concerns”, including Chinese and my work at the bank and was familiar tycoon, Beny Steinmetz. report by one private detective, a Indian groups seeking mining with me, was picked out to become Six years later and lawsuits are former CIA operative, Stephen Fox. investment in Africa. prime minister by the military,” Thiam flying: corruption enquiries funded by Thiam says his rubbish has been raided recalls. “They wanted a civilian financier George Soros have stripped by Fox and believes he is under UBS technocrat to come in and run a mostly BSGR of its rights, Rio is suing both surveillance. civilian government.” BSGR and Brazil’s Vale, which bought Accusations in Rio’s legal papers “We were being courted very The new prime minister, Kabine into the contested blocks for $2.5bn in are repeatedly fronted by the caveat, aggressively by a number of banks,” Komara, had been a director at a trade 2010, whilst BSGR is seeking “On information and belief...”, a legal Thiam says. “We were very well treated finance bank based in Cairo. He arbitration with the World Bank. escape clause that exempts Rio from and very comfortable at Merrill so we telephoned Thiam and offered UBS an Mahmoud Thiam is an unlikely defamation if its allegations are found didn’t consider it, but just after 2000, advisory mandate over Guinea’s linchpin in the affair. Rio has accused to lack substance. It has also lowered we noticed that Merrill might go mining industry. Thiam agreed, on the him of hosting dinners between Beny the bribe it says Thiam received to at through an aggressive contraction.” basis that Komara appoint a mining Steinmetz, Guinea’s former president least $100m, raising questions as to “We had a very large transaction minister “who understands the and Vale’s then chief executive, Roger the evidence on... Continue ➤ Gold (US$ per ounce) Silver (US$ per ounce) 1,350 21.50 1,288 19.88 1,225 18.25 1,163 16.63 1,100 15.00 Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 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