UK’s High Court of Justice has seized assets worth $1.8 billion from Beny Steinmetz and five former BSGR executives in a Vale dispute over a failed iron ore joint venture (JV) in Africa, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The media report said Steinmetz and five former BSGR executives cannot dispose or reduce the value of certain assets worth $1.85 billion. The court ruling follows Vale’s request in December; Vale paid $500 million in 2010 to co-own an iron ore project.
A former court decision in April 2019 ordered BSGR to pay Vale $1.2 billion. The other court ruled at the time BSG Resources (BSGR) induced Vale to set up a joint venture to explore an iron ore site in the Simandou region in Guinea.
The Guinean government annulled the iron ore concession in 2014, following corruption charges against BSGR, which reportedly bribed Guinean officials to win the project. Vale was not part of the scandal, the company said at the time.