Allegations of possible payments to secure votes. Allegations of misuse of agency funds by top diplomats. A possible job offer to entice a candidate to withdraw from a race.
These are not the antics of a corrupt election in an unstable country. Rather, they are attempts in the seemingly respectable salons of an agency affiliated with the United Nations, intended to influence decisions regarding the start of mining of metals from the seabed that are used in electric vehicles.
It is all part of a fierce battle over who will next lead the International Seabed Authority, which oversees global mining in international waters.
The allegations of fraud underscore the controversial nature of the agency’s upcoming agenda and the billions of dollars at stake. Some countries are fiercely opposed to the idea of exploiting the world’s deepest waters, while others see it as a much-needed economic opportunity. Whoever takes the agency’s top job in the coming years will have considerable influence over these decisions.
Michael Lodge, secretary general of the International Seabed Authority since 2016, is urging diplomats from the agency’s 168 member states to elect him to a third four-year term. In that role, he hopes to help the agency finalize environmental rules as it prepares to accept its first application, perhaps as early as this fall, to begin industrial-scale mining in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico.
Her opponent, Leticia Carvalho, an oceanographer and former oil industry regulator from Brazil, has called for a more measured approach, arguing that it will likely take years of work to finalize the rules. Her position is that no mining applications should be approved until that process is complete.
Amid this already intense campaign, a former Seabed Authority executive filed a complaint with the United Nations in May, accusing Mr. Lodge and his deputy of misusing the organization's funds.
Supporters of the two candidates have accused the other party of trying to influence the outcome of the election by offering to pay delegates' travel expenses or pay delegations' membership fees. Countries with arrears are generally not allowed to vote, and 38 countries were behind on payments in May.
Each country pays a different amount, depending on the size of its economy. This year, it could be as much as $1.8 million for China and as low as $831 for Rwanda. The money is used to support the agency's annual budget.
To add to the intrigue, the ambassador of Kiribati, a tiny Pacific island nation that is sponsoring Mr Lodge's nomination, tried late last month to convince Ms Carvalho to withdraw from the race in exchange for a possible senior staff position at the Seabed Authority.
If the secret move had worked, it would have left Mr. Lodge unopposed. Mr. Lodge did not respond to written questions about the effort. But in a six-page statement to The Times, Mr. Lodge and his office denied suggestions that he misused agency funds or otherwise sought to improperly influence the election.
“You have a collection of vague, unsubstantiated, unfounded and anonymous rumours, gossip and hearsay which are demonstrably untrue, have no basis in fact or evidence and fail to withstand any objective test,” Mr Lodge said in the statement, adding that he and the Seabed Authority “follow the highest standards of international good governance and management.”
The attempt to entice Ms. Carvalho to drop out drew angry reactions from her and the Brazilian delegation. “We have a great candidate who has already received a lot of support, and we are going to win this election,” said Bruno Imparato, a Brazilian diplomat who is helping to organize Ms. Carvalho's campaign.
Teburoro Tito, the Kiribati ambassador who urged Ms. Carvalho to leave the race, confirmed the offer in an interview with The New York Times. He added that Mr. Lodge had signed the proposed deal as part of a strategy to ensure Mr. Lodge's re-election at the Seabed Authority's next meeting in late July and early August at its headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica.
“We don’t want anyone to come in and break what ISA is trying to do,” Mr. Tito said in an interview, recalling what he told Ms. Carvalho. “I come from an island. We always believe in reconciliation. We don’t want too much discord in the village.”
Mr Lodge said in his statement that he was “not aware of the said discussions and is not a party to the alleged proposal.” The agency said all vacant positions were advertised through official channels and were subject to competitive recruitment.
The Seabed Authority is governed by the 168 member states that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which declares that all metals on the ocean floor in international waters are “the common heritage of mankind” and that access is subject to the exclusive control of the Seabed Authority.
In the decades since, the Seabed Authority has approved 31 exploration leases authorizing mapping and other preliminary work in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Now the agency is preparing to consider applications for industrial-scale mining, carried out with bulldozer-like machines dropped onto the ocean floor miles below the surface.
While some countries are keen to move forward, at least 25 have proposed a moratorium or “precautionary measure,” saying there is not enough data to guarantee that mining will not cause harm.
China has the most of these contracts — five in all. But the exploratory contracts are divided among several countries, including Russia, Poland, India, France, Germany, Japan and several Pacific Island nations. The United States has never ratified the treaty, but it is participating in the debate.
Member states can carry out the exploration work themselves or hire contractors, such as The Metals Company, a Nasdaq-listed Canadian mining company that aims to begin mining millions of tonnes of metal-containing nodules from the Pacific Ocean floor as early as 2026.
The company estimates that just one of its contract areas — a 46,000-square-mile swath of the Pacific Ocean — would generate $31 billion in net profits over 25 years of mining. The company claims its contract areas contain enough nickel, cobalt and manganese to supply all of the U.S. automotive battery metal needs.
“The planet's resources were created for humanity,” Mr Tito said, explaining his opposition to the proposed moratorium.
The Metals Company has been relying on Mr Lodge to push the Seabed Authority’s member states to finalise the regulations. There is a sense of urgency, as the company had just $6.8 million in cash reserves at the end of last year – a small percentage of the capital it will need to operate its mining operations, as some investors have held back as the company waits for the green light.
Gerard Barron, the company's chief executive, said he played no role in lobbying for Mr. Lodge's reelection, knowing it would draw criticism from environmentalists. “That kind of move could backfire so badly,” Mr. Barron said in an interview.
But Kiribati is one of three small Pacific island nations — the others are Nauru and Tonga — with which The Metals Company has made deals to secure mining access to sectors of the Pacific governed by the Seabed Authority. So Kiribati's help to secure Mr. Lodge a third term is an advantage for The Metals Company.
Mr. Tito said he first met Mr. Lodge decades ago when he was a young lawyer living in Kiribati and Mr. Lodge helped represent Mr. Tito's family when his sister died while giving birth to a baby after she was improperly anaesthetized. Mr. Tito later became president of Kiribati, a country of about 120,000 people, and is now ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr Lodge, who is British, was nominated for his first two terms by Britain. But the government only supports leaders of international organisations for two terms, Mr Tito said, explaining why Kiribati nominated Mr Lodge this time. The secretary-general is paid about $213,000 a year.
Since January, Mr. Lodge has visited China, Cameroon, Japan, Egypt, Italy and the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, among other places. These visits are described by Mr. Lodge and his staff as educational and outreach missions, but his critics see them as inappropriate.
“He is clearly campaigning, using the Seabed Authority machine as part of his campaign,” Ms. Carvalho said.
Mr Lodge responded that travelling to the office was a necessary part of his job and had nothing to do with the elections. He added that “as Secretary-General and as a candidate for the elections, Mr Lodge condemns any attempt to influence the vote by paying for delegations to attend meetings.”
The German government, which is backing Ms Carvalho's election, has announced plans to seek an investigation into what it sees as questionable financial activities at the Seabed Authority, according to emails obtained by The Times.
In recent speeches, Mr. Lodge has cited the need for the Seabed Authority to complete its work on the regulations. “It has taken decades to get to where we are now, and there seems to be no reason to deviate from the evolutionary approach,” Mr. Lodge said at the United Nations last month.
The allegations of misuse of Seabed Authority funds by Mr. Lodge and his top deputy, among others at the agency, came from a former human resources official there. The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, says that since 2016, Mr. Lodge has received $67,000 in excessive reimbursements related to his housing and other expenses in Jamaica and New York.
The complaint was sent to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services. But it sent it back to the Seabed Authority, according to emails obtained by The Times. That meant Mr. Lodge was asked to deal with allegations of misconduct.
In its response, the agency said it has robust and independent procedures in place to deal with staff complaints and grievances.
Ms Carvalho, who now works for the United Nations Environmental Programme as head of the marine division, said her supporters had not sought to pay the costs of other delegations. She said she would have a different management style to Mr Lodge, who has been accused of being too closely tied to the mining sector and not providing enough transparency into the Seabed Authority's activities.
Although Brazil has approved a 10-year moratorium on seabed mining, Ms. Carvalho said she does not support that position. But she added that if the Seabed Authority were to authorize mining before environmental standards were finalized, legal challenges would arise.
