Energy firm bribing Nigerians, UK prosecutors say
A middleman paid for by Glencore flew money on private jets across Africa to bribe officials, a London court heard on Wednesday.
Financial Times reported that a British subsidiary of the commodities trader and mining group would be sentenced in Southwark Crown Court this week after pleading guilty in June to seven counts of corruption charge covering countries from Nigeria to Cameroon following a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
Glencore has reportedly set aside $1.5 billion to settle a series of global investigations, including about $1.1 billion for US authorities. His UK fine will be determined on Thursday.
The SFO's investigation focused on Glencore's London office and its West Africa office, which sourced oil from across the continent.
On Wednesday, a lawyer representing the SFO said Glencore had paid a Nigerian middleman more than 4 million euros disguised as service fees.
The money was flown, often by private jet, from Nigeria to Cameroon to a Glencore oil trader who used it to pay bribes, according to the SFO, with 13.7 million dollars paid to officials of Cameroon's national oil and gas company and the country's national company. refinery in the three years prior to March 1, 2015.
The court heard that Glencore used a Swiss 'till fund' to distribute money to be used for bribery. The West Africa desk trader withdrew €6.3 million in cash from this desk through a series of transactions listed as "office expenses".
Glencore non-executive chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi, who replaced Tony Hayward in a leadership overhaul last year, and general counsel Shaun Teichner both appeared in court on Wednesday.
>Clare Montgomery KC, representing Glencore, said the company's conduct was "inexcusable" and "has no place at Glencore", but that "these practices do not exist in any form at any of the companies of Glencore" today.
In May, the SFO accused Glencore Energy UK of for-profit bribery in connection with its oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.
The anti-corruption agency investigation found that the company had paid more than $28 million to agents and intermediaries to secure preferential access to oil, increased shipments, valuable oil grades and preferred delivery dates.
On Wednesday, the agency set up a scheme in which Glencore merchants disguised payments to make it look like they were for "legitimate services".
The court heard that the SFO had received evidence from Anthony Stimler, a British citizen who worked in the company's West Africa office until 2019 and pleaded guilty to charges in the United States. United last year. He confirmed that the payments to the Nigerian agent were a "sham" to disguise their true purpose.
Glencore is the first company to be criminally prosecuted by the UK Serious Fraud Office for paying bribes and has pleaded guilty to five of those offences.
Glencore pleaded guilty in two separate U.S. criminal cases and agreed to pay approximately $1.1 billion in criminal fines and forfeiture. Prosecutors in the US and UK have agreed to focus on different offense periods to avoid double risk.
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A middleman paid for by Glencore flew money on private jets across Africa to bribe officials, a London court heard on Wednesday.
Financial Times reported that a British subsidiary of the commodities trader and mining group would be sentenced in Southwark Crown Court this week after pleading guilty in June to seven counts of corruption charge covering countries from Nigeria to Cameroon following a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
Glencore has reportedly set aside $1.5 billion to settle a series of global investigations, including about $1.1 billion for US authorities. His UK fine will be determined on Thursday.
The SFO's investigation focused on Glencore's London office and its West Africa office, which sourced oil from across the continent.
On Wednesday, a lawyer representing the SFO said Glencore had paid a Nigerian middleman more than 4 million euros disguised as service fees.
The money was flown, often by private jet, from Nigeria to Cameroon to a Glencore oil trader who used it to pay bribes, according to the SFO, with 13.7 million dollars paid to officials of Cameroon's national oil and gas company and the country's national company. refinery in the three years prior to March 1, 2015.
The court heard that Glencore used a Swiss 'till fund' to distribute money to be used for bribery. The West Africa desk trader withdrew €6.3 million in cash from this desk through a series of transactions listed as "office expenses".
Glencore non-executive chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi, who replaced Tony Hayward in a leadership overhaul last year, and general counsel Shaun Teichner both appeared in court on Wednesday.
>Clare Montgomery KC, representing Glencore, said the company's conduct was "inexcusable" and "has no place at Glencore", but that "these practices do not exist in any form at any of the companies of Glencore" today.
In May, the SFO accused Glencore Energy UK of for-profit bribery in connection with its oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.
The anti-corruption agency investigation found that the company had paid more than $28 million to agents and intermediaries to secure preferential access to oil, increased shipments, valuable oil grades and preferred delivery dates.
On Wednesday, the agency set up a scheme in which Glencore merchants disguised payments to make it look like they were for "legitimate services".
The court heard that the SFO had received evidence from Anthony Stimler, a British citizen who worked in the company's West Africa office until 2019 and pleaded guilty to charges in the United States. United last year. He confirmed that the payments to the Nigerian agent were a "sham" to disguise their true purpose.
Glencore is the first company to be criminally prosecuted by the UK Serious Fraud Office for paying bribes and has pleaded guilty to five of those offences.
Glencore pleaded guilty in two separate U.S. criminal cases and agreed to pay approximately $1.1 billion in criminal fines and forfeiture. Prosecutors in the US and UK have agreed to focus on different offense periods to avoid double risk.
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