They came with 800,000 cash and hungry for oil: Glencore in court for bribery Ukraine thinks German weapons are ‘super awesome’

A UK subsidiary of the Glencore commodities group was fined £182.9 million (CHF 208.9 million) in the UK. Reuters news agency reported this on Thursday. There is also a seizure of a further £93.5 million.

According to the news agency, the reason for the verdict is seven bribery offenses related to oil deals in Africa. Accordingly, employees of the British subsidiary allegedly used private jets to transfer bribes to officials in West Africa.

“Four weeks after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, a Glencore delegation arrived in the Provatejet in search of oil,” Bloomberg writes. They had a lot of cash with them to pay bribes.

Javier Blas, Bloomberg journalist and author, quoted from the report on Twitter: “A few months later, a deputy to the South Sudanese president met with Glencore management in Zurich.” Here too, bribes were involved to secure an oil deal.

Glencore Energy paid millions in bribes to officials – or at least did not prevent the payments, according to statements by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at the Southwark Crown Court hearing.

British prosecutor Alexandra Healy had said the British subsidiary had paid bribes to officials of Cameroon’s national oil and gas company, through an oil trader in the West African branch of its London facility, in order to obtain “favorable treatment”. in the sale of crude oil.

Glencore itself responded to the verdict in a comuniqué on Thursday afternoon. The behavior is unforgivable and has no place in the group, said chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi. Glencore has been very cooperative in the investigation and has launched a comprehensive business reform program, it said.

According to the report, the British subsidiary had already pleaded guilty to seven bribery charges in June. Glencore also said in May that it is expected to pay up to $1.5 billion in connection with bribery and market manipulation allegations in the United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom. (adi/awp/sda)