Glencore hit with $150m fine over Congo bribery
Swiss authorities have ordered commodities firm Glencore to pay $152m to resolve a long-running bribery case concerning its mining activities in the Congo.
In addition, a number of former executives including Alex Beard, the former head of oil trading, have been charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK over the case.
According to the Swiss attorney general’s office, Glencore was criminally liable for “failing to take all necessary reasonable and organisational measures to prevent the bribery of a Congolese public official by its business partner”.
Glencore must now pay a fine of $2.4m plus $150m in compensation, bringing an end to the case that has run for more than four years.
The bribery took place in 2011 when a business partner of Glencore allegedly paid fees to a public official in order to acquire a minority stake in Congo’s state mining company at a significantly reduced rate.
A statement from Switzerland-based and UK-listed Glencore said that the Swiss attorney general did not find the company had known about the alleged bribery and did not benefit financially from the action.
However, Glencore was found to be criminally liable for failing to act. And while Glencore did not admit to the findings, it is not appealing the charge.
Glencore can now effectively close the door on the case. A $180m settlement with Congolese authorities was reached in 2022 while more than $1bn was spent to settle things in the US. A parallel case in the Netherlands was dismissed this week.
“Glencore is pleased to have resolved these investigations relating to past matters that occurred over 13 years ago,” said chair Kalidas Madhavpeddi. “This resolves the last of the previously disclosed government investigations into historical misconduct.”
He also said that Glencore had “invested heavily” to improve its ethics and compliance programme. This includes appointing two independent compliance monitors in line with a mandate from the US Justice Department.
However, four of Glencore’s former executives are facing corruption charges in the UK over the awarding of contracts in West Africa between 2007 and 2014.
The four executives – former oil trading head Beard plus Andrew Gibson, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga and Martin Wakefield – are set to appear at a London magistrates court in September.
“Bribery damages financial markets and causes lasting harm to communities,” said Nick Ephgrave, director of the UK’s SFO.
“Today’s action is an important step towards exposing overseas corruption and holding those who are responsible to account,” he added.
