Ex-Guinea minister pleads not guilty in U.S. to laundering bribes

Carmen Century Investment

24/01/2017 16:55

By Nate Raymond 
    NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A former minister of mines in 
Guinea pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to U.S. charges that he 
laundered $8.5 million in bribes he received from a Chinese 
conglomerate to help it secure mining rights in the West African 
country. 
    Mahmoud Thiam, a U.S. citizen who served as Guinea's 
minister of mines from 2009 to 2010, entered his plea in federal 
court in Manhattan to one count of money laundering and one 
count of transactions in criminally derived property. 
    His plea came after Thiam, 50, was arrested on Dec. 13 in 
one of the latest cases to focus on allegations of bribery 
involving individuals tied to Guinea's mining sector. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1E81GV 
    According to the indictment, beginning in 2009, Thiam 
received bribes from representatives of a Chinese conglomerate 
to help it obtain highly-valuable investment rights, including 
near total control of Guinea's mining sector. 
    The Chinese conglomerate was not named in court papers, but 
a key deal in the case matched the description of an agreement 
reached in 2009 involving a joint venture majority owned by 
China International Fund and China Sonangol. 
    Prosecutors said that to secretly receive the bribes, Thiam 
opened a Hong Kong bank account and misreported his occupation 
to conceal his status as a government official. 
    He then transferred millions of dollars from that account 
to, among other things, provide funds to a Malaysian company 
that facilitated buying a $3.75 million upstate New York estate 
and to pay for private schools for his children, the indictment 
said. 
    In court papers filed on Monday, Thiam's lawyers said their 
client was entitled to a presumption of innocence, and said it 
was not clear that prosecutors can prove that an illegal quid 
pro quo took place. 
    Those court papers were filed in support of Thiam's bid to 
be released on bail. A federal magistrate judge in December 
ordered Thiam be detained after the prosecution argued that he 
posed a flight risk. 
    The case is U.S. v. Thiam, U.S. District Court, Southern 
District of New York, No. 17-cr-47. 
     
 
 (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Tom Brown) 
 ((Nate.Raymond@thomsonreuters.com and Twitter @nateraymond; 
646-223-6752; Reuters Messaging: 
nate.raymond.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: USA GUINEA/CORRUPTION