The tycoon who did deals in some of the world's most dangerous countries got unstuck in Guinea

Beny Steinmetz dealt in diamonds, but it was when he branched out into iron ore that things took a turn for the worse

Widely thought to be Israel’s richest man, Beny Steinmetz learnt the diamond trade from his father, Rubin. He also inherited a taste for doing deals in the world’s most dangerous places. Angola, Sierra Leone; if there was a hotspot with a possibility of a gemstone fortune, he would be there.

But it was when he branched out into iron ore that he started to come unstuck. Despite having little experience, he managed to win a potentially hugely lucrative licence, at an apparent knockdown price, to mine rights for iron ore in Guinea. Having invested £160m, he sold half of it in a deal potentially worth $2.5bn (£1.6bn) a few months later.

Furthermore, the rights he was given had already been awarded a decade earlier in 1997 to the vast London-based miner Rio Tinto. Guinea’s dictatorial leader, General Lansana Conté, simply took them from Rio and handed them over.

Allegations of corruption, including lurid tales of gifts to the President such as a watch and model racing car encrusted with diamonds, all denied or played down by Steinmetz, abounded. Under new leadership, Guinea took the licence back from him, and the vast number of court cases multiplied.