A secretive Hong Kong conglomerate that has cut multi-billion-dollar deals in Africa orchestrated a bribery scheme to advance its quest for the continent’s resources, according to a US court filing and contracts seen by the Financial Times.
The conglomerate, informally known as the Queensway Group, is already under scrutiny after its frontman — a globetrotting middleman with seven names and ties to China’s intelligence services — was detained in a Communist party corruption investigation last year.
On Tuesday, FBI agents in New York arrested Mahmoud Thiam, a former UBS banker who, during a stint as mining minister in the mineral-rich west African state of Guinea, agreed a $7bn resources and infrastructure deal with Queensway Group companies in 2009.