The billionaire Beny Steinmetz was detained by the Israeli police on Monday morning for questioning in connection with an investigation into money laundering, obstruction of justice and bribery, officials said.
Mr. Steinmetz, an Israeli diamonds, mining and real estate magnate, is already under scrutiny by law enforcement authorities in four other countries, including the United States. Federal prosecutors in the United States are investigating whether representatives of his firm bribed government officials in Guinea to secure a multibillion-dollar mining deal. In Switzerland and Guinea, prosecutors have conducted similar inquiries. He was previously detained and questioned in Israel in December.
Since 2013, the United States Justice Department has been investigating Mr. Steinmetz’s company, BSG Resources, over potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Guinean government has claimed that BSG Resources obtained an iron ore mining concession by paying more than $8 million in cash through a representative to the then-wife of the country’s president.
The focus of the Israeli investigation appears to be more expansive, based on an official statement that said that authorities were investigating “a number of people on suspicion that they acted systematically together with the main suspect in order to create and present fictitious contracts and deals, among other things in the field of real estate in a foreign country, for the purpose of transferring funds and money laundering.”
Mr. Steinmetz is also under indictment in Romania, as part of a broad investigation into money laundering and real estate there.
Continue reading the main storyIn April, The New York Times reported that a firm that claimed to invest money for Mr. Steinmetz’s brother and longtime business partner, Daniel, along with his son Raz, had partnered with Kushner Companies, the family real estate firm of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, on dozens of apartment buildings around Manhattan and Jersey City.
The Kushner Companies said its deals were with Beny Steinmetz’s nephew Raz, and not with Beny Steinmetz.
On Monday, Beny Steinmetz gave a statement in court. “This is how totalitarian states behave,” Israeli media reported him as saying. “This is like a dictatorship that decides and marks people.”
As he has done previously, he blamed his multinational legal issues on the billionaire hedge fund titan George Soros, who he has said directed a smear campaign against him and his companies. In April, two of his firms sued Mr. Soros in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Mr. Steinmetz’s lawyer, Ronen Rosenblum, told reporters outside the courtroom: “We understand that the case that prompted the opening of the investigation – the Guinea case – has no basis and no substance.” He added: “We are confident that just as no charges have been filed until today in any of the investigations, the same will be true in this case.”
Mr. Steinmetz was detained along with four others, including Tal Silberstein, a political consultant who has worked for Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister, and other Israeli leaders. Israeli media reported that David Granot, the chief executive of Bezeq, a telecommunications company, was also questioned.
Police officials said their investigation was being conducted with international cooperation and said each of those involved was suspected of different violations. Some of their homes and offices were searched Monday morning, officials said.
Mr. Silberstein’s lawyer, Eyal Rosovsky, said most of the court hearing was based on material that only the court had been privy to so far, not the lawyers or clients.
“As far as we understand, at issue are questions about events that occurred in 2011. Now, it is 2017,” he said, adding that his client denied all the accusations against him.
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