Mining rights bribery alleged against SA businessman

US authorities have implicated Cape Town multimillionaire Walter Hennig in the bribery of officials of three African countries for mining rights – including, apparently, the President of Guinea, says a Business Day report. It says Hennig’s Palladino Holdings entered a joint venture named Africa Management with US hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group and Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda Holdings in 2008 to invest in natural resources. Och-Ziff announced in 2014 that US authorities were investigating it for bribery in Africa. Earlier it said it had put aside $414m for a potential settlement. In what the report says is the first overt sign that the probe encompasses the activities of Och-Ziff’s SA partners, US authorities arrested Samuel Mebiame, son of a former Gabonese Prime Minister on Tuesday. Mebiame had allegedly worked as a fixer for Palladino, Africa Management and a mining company in which they were invested. The criminal complaint against Mebiame, filed in New York, alleges Mebiame ‘routinely (paid) bribes to foreign government officials’ to get mineral rights for the companies. The report notes it does not identify Hennig by name, but refers to ‘co-conspirator #1’, to whom it alleges Mebiame reported directly. Co-conspirator No 1 is identified as the ‘beneficial owner’ of a company in the offshore haven of Turks and Caicos, a reference to Palladino. Hennig’s lawyer has confirmed his client was the beneficial owner.