Diksha Sundriyal
Starring Matthew McConaughey and Édgar Ramírez, ‘Gold’ follows the story of a company that becomes a rags-to-riches success when it claims to be in possession of a gold mine. It begins with Kenny Wells seeking out geologist Michael Acosta to help him find a gold mine in Indonesia, which he saw in his dreams. For his part, Acosta finds the place, and after months and months of toiling, their hard work and sacrifice finally bear fruit. The business turns into a multi-billion dollar success, but soon, everything starts to unravel when the lies come to light. And Michael Acosta seems to be at the heart of it all. While the film gives us a compelling portrayal of the story, the part about Acosta is nowhere near as colorful as the real people who inspired his character.
Michael Acosta is a Composite of Two Real Geologists
In telling the true story of the scam perpetrated by the company, ‘Gold’ makes a lot of changes to the story and the characters. To begin with, the names of all the characters and the organizations have been changed. So, David Walsh and Bre-X have been turned into Kenny Wells and Washoe. When it comes to Michael Acosta, two people, John Felderhof and Michael de Guzman, serve as the inspirations, leading to an amalgam that does not share the personal histories of the real people but only focuses on their connection to the scam. For the major part, Acosta’s character follows the trajectory of Michael de Guzman, but the film leaves out a lot of details about the real man.
Guzman was born in the Philippines in 1956 and was known to be a person who liked to have fun. He enjoyed things like karaoke and alcohol and reportedly had three to four wives at the same time, though the women seemingly didn’t know about each other. Professionally, he was a geologist and moved to Indonesia to try his luck finding something that could make him rich, which is when the mines in Borneo came into the picture. It is believed that Guzman roped in another geologist, John Felderhof, into the project and got him to find an investor who could back them. Then, Felderhof reached out to David Walsh, and the rest is history.
Reportedly, Guzman faked the samples with a method called salting to skew the results of the analysis and made it look like the mines were producing gold left and right. It is believed that he paid the locals to get the river gold to get the desired results for the samples. According to a story, when they were yet to strike a gold mine, and the deadline was approaching, Guzman told Walsh that he had a dream where he saw exactly where they could find the gold, which is when he had the workers dig into a new place where the gold was allegedly found. Of course, in the end, it all turned out to be a huge lie. The company met a devastating fall, but Guzman was not there to see it. Reportedly, before the scam came to light, he, along with Walsh and Felderhof, had taken out a portion of their stocks with a value of $100 million.
The Circumstances Surrounding Michael de Guzman’s Death Raise Several Questions
Things were going great for Bre-X until, eventually, the American company Freeport-McMoRan was brought in as a partner. Before they could move forward, they decided to check the mines for themselves, which is when the discrepancies arrived. Guzman had been in Toronto at the time and was asked by his partners, Walsh and Felderhof, to fly back to Indonesia and clear up the issue. The geologist flew from Canada to Singapore, where he was later revealed to have met his wife, Genie, and their two children. His next step was traced to a co-worker with whom Guzman went to a karaoke bar. According to this person, he had tried to kill himself in his hotel room that night. The next morning, they traveled together on a helicopter to Samarinda. The following day, i.e., March 19, 1997, Guzman took another helicopter to the mine, but the co-worker wasn’t with him.
The only other people with him on the flight were a maintenance technician and an Indonesian Air Force pilot. Reportedly, 20 minutes into the journey, Guzman opened the left side door of the helicopter and jumped off into the thick forest below. The pilot testified that he did not see anything happen and only noticed later that Guzman was gone. His remains were discovered four days later; parts of his body, including his limbs and his face, were missing. It was deduced that the animals in the forest must have gotten to him first. Investigation termed it a suicide, especially after the scam came to light. It was believed that Guzman knew that the truth was about to come out and that his lies would cost him everything, so he decided to end his life.
Another reason behind Guzman’s act was found in one of the suicide notes, where it was allegedly mentioned he had Hepatitis B. In the end, the news of his death was broken to the public, and soon after, the company’s share value plummeted drastically. While the investigators confirmed Guzman’s death, questions were raised about how the body was identified as his. Some people theorized that perhaps Guzman had faked his death so he could escape the repercussions of his actions. This theory is also supported by ‘Gold,’ where it is hinted that Michael Acosta may have faked his death and fled with the money he made from Washoe. Another theory floating around is that Guzman was killed and then thrown from the helicopter to make it look like a suicide. None of these theories, however, have been confirmed or backed by the authorities.
John Felderhof Cleared His Name Before Passing Away
John Felderhof was born in Holland and grew up in Nova Scotia. Following his graduation with a degree in geology, he focused on Africa and Indonesia and played a critical role in developing projects in the latter. Before he met with Michael de Guzman and collaborated with David Walsh on Bre-X, he had already worked on successfully finding copper and gold mines. He had developed quite a reputation for himself. He first met Walsh in 1983 in Indonesia. So, about a decade later, when the businessman reached out to him asking for an investment opportunity, Felderhof roped him into the plan of exploiting the mines in Borneo.
Once Bre-X shot up, Felderhof’s life took a happy turn, but things turned just as bad when the truth came out. By 1997, the company was bankrupt, and he was put on trial for charges of insider trading and spreading false information. By 2007, he was acquitted of all these charges. By this time, his wealth had reduced significantly, and reportedly, he only had about $250,000 left. All this time, he also claimed complete innocence relating to the lies about the mine, saying that he was also duped by Guzman, who was found to have faked the sample analysis reports. Meanwhile, his personal life also went through several upheavals.
Felderhof was married thrice in his lifetime. His first marriage was with Denise in the 1960s when he was working in Africa. In 1985, he married his second wife, Ingrid, with whom he had a child named John. The problems with Bre-X trickled into their relationship and they were divorced by 2001. In 2004, he permanently moved to the Philippines and married a woman named Maria. At the time of his death, he had four children, seven stepchildren, and twelve grandchildren. He passed away on October 28, 2019, of natural causes at the age of 79.
Read More: Gold: Is Kenny Wells Based on a Real Person? How did David Walsh Die?
You must be logged in to post a comment.