Prosecutors in the United Kingdom allege that Glencore officials delivered cash in private jets to African officials as part of a web of bribery and corruption orchestrated by the London oil trading desk.
Following a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation, the LSE and JSE-listed company founded by Marc Rich admitted to seven counts of bribery in countries including Nigeria and Cameroon. The company allegedly paid more than $28 million in bribes to gain access to oil cargoes, according to the prosecution. According to the SFO, this is the first time a corporation has been convicted of paying bribes, according to News24.
On Thursday, a London judge will determine the final fine.
“Corruption was tolerated at a very high ranking level within the business in general” and the west African trading desk in particular, prosecutors stated in a public case summary released on Wednesday.
The sentencing will conclude a series of lengthy investigations against the company in the United Kingdom, but charges against ex staff remain possible. On 21 October, an SFO prosecutor stated that as many as eleven former employees were already under investigative process for criminal wrongdoing.
In May, Glencore estimated that it would pay approximately $1.5 billion (R27 billion) to resolve investigations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Additionally, investigations are ongoing in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Between 2011 and 2016, the SFO’s investigation revealed that the resource trader paid for favorable access to oil, including greater cargoes, precious grades of oil, and preferred delivery dates.
Prosecutors outlined a scheme in which traders at the firm’s crude oil desk in London disguised payments “in order to give the appearance that these payments were for legitimate services.”
Fake transactions
The SFO described how Glencore used a cash desk in its Swiss headquarters and private jets in Africa to courier bribes across west Africa in order to bribe government officials.
The company paid bribes to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo using sham payments to an agent.
The SFO stated that Glencore paid more than €4 million in disguised service fees to the agent identified as NG1. The agent then withdrew the funds in Nigeria and transported them, frequently via private jet, to Cameroon, where a Glencore oil trader used them to pay bribes.
READ MORE: Bribe-taking former prosecutor convicted
The guilty plea is a much-needed victory for the SFO, which has endured a string of humiliating court reversals as a result of leadership mistakes. Some of the failures in another high-profile oil corruption case were attributed to “cultural issues” within the SFO, according to a government-requested review.
