The Curious Tale of Airbus and the African Gold Mine
Shares bought using bank havens. A helicopter deal. The Geneva prosecutor has questions.
The processing plant at the Kodieran gold project in Mali.
Photographer: Lutz Hartmann
The Kodieran gold deposit in Mali never produced much gold beyond the specks that locals panned from this remote corner of Africa. Yet in 2012, the mine gained a curious shareholder: Airbus.
The French aviation giant bought its stake in a round-about way, moving 15 million euros from an internal fund through a series of entities in the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany.