Controversial businessman is linked to mineral company with interest in Greenland

The Australian-American company Critical Metals Corp, which is currently in the process of acquiring the Australian company Tanbreez and thus potentially taking over the exploitation license for rare earth metals in Killavaat Alannguat, has come into the spotlight of Romanian media.

The two news media Romania-Insider.com and Ziarul Financiar have taken a closer look at the shareholder group behind Critical Metals Corps' parent company European Lithium, and point out that the controversial Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis, who currently resides in London, holds the majority of the shares in the company as a shadow manager, allegedly with the aim of ensuring that Romania can become a processing site for a future industrial plant for the production of metals and magnets for industry and defense.

Heroin possession and corruption charges

Frank Timis is a very controversial figure who, in his early years in the Australian city of Perth, was arrested several times for possession of heroin, but who nevertheless managed to build a lucrative business around mining and oil extraction with the companies Gabriel Resources, Regal Petroleum, African Minerals and others, which has secured him a fortune of approximately 12 billion dollars.

Frank Timis has been investigated several times by both the media and authorities for tax evasion, corruption and fraud. Among other things, by the BBC in 2019, which in the documentary "The $10 Billion Energy" questioned the acquisition of a gas field off the coast of Senegal.

The charges have subsequently been denied by Frank Timis and Timis Corporation.

Most recently, the authorities in Senegal have demanded payment of 250 million euros for non-payment of taxes in connection with an oil deal. That case is not closed.

In a number of cases, authorities have had to stop the investigation due to lack of evidence.

Several of Frank Timis' companies are registered in the Virgin Islands - including Critical Metals Corp, which is set to take over the Killavaat Alannguat project. And that makes it difficult for the authorities to access tax information.

Recommendation to Naalakkersuisut on the way

When asked whether the Department of Raw Materials knows about Frank Timis, the answer is that it does not. But that it is currently investigating the company in more detail in accordance with the Mining Act's requirements for licensees. This is because if a company with a license is taken over by another company, the Department must prepare a recommendation to the Greenland Government, which must ultimately assess whether the company can be approved as a new licensee.

In other words, Critical Metals Corp must be approved by the Government of Greenland before they can take over the exploitation license in Killavaat Alannguat.

Investigations underway

The head of the department will not reveal whether the department's recommendation will contain reservations or direct warnings, but Sermitsiaq has previously written that the department is aware that Critical Metals' parent company European Lithium has had several cases filed against it regarding stock market manipulation and market abuse in connection with their Lithium project in Wolfsberg, Austria, which has been described by the two Austrian media outlets Wiener Zeitung and Der Standard, among others, and which was also mentioned in Sermitsiaq last year.

At that time, Sermitsiaq presented the cases to Naalakkersuisoq for Raw Materials, Naaja H. Nathanielsen, who said that she was of course staying informed and that the department was in the process of investigating the company's situation: "As you know, my department has initiated the required investigations to determine whether a transfer of Tanbreez can take place with the aforementioned investor."

Thorough screening is necessary.

The environmental organization NOAH believes that the case here emphasizes the importance of adopting an investor screening law in Greenland as soon as possible, so that companies like Critical Metals Corp can be thoroughly investigated before they are granted a license for one of the world's largest deposits of rare earth metals:

– The ambiguities surrounding the ownership of Critical Metals Corp and the possible involvement of people who have been convicted of criminal offences once again underline the need to thoroughly screen investors who buy Greenlandic mining projects. If they do not respect the law and pay taxes outside Greenland, why would they do so in this case? The new investor screening law allows the Ministry of Mineral Resources to cooperate with the Danish justice system when investigating companies that the Ministry suspects are not clean, and although the law has not yet entered into force, the authorities should in any case subject Critical Metals Corp to the most thorough investigation possible, says NOAH spokesperson Niels-Henrik Hooge.

Opaque ownership

Professor of financial management at Aalborg University, Per Nikolaj Bukh, has also looked at European Lithium and Critical Metals Corp’s stock exchange materials and shareholder groups.

He agrees that ownership relationships are very difficult to understand.

– A significant conclusion is that it is completely opaque who controls the companies and who gets something out of the companies. The shareholders listed, including the big banks and the like, have underlying shareholders, and we do not necessarily know who they are.