Global commodity trading giant, Glencore, flew millions of dollars worth of bribes to Nigerian government officials in private jets.
This was revealed by a London court on Wednesday, as Glencore is being tried for bribes paid to government officials in Nigeria and Cameroon, reported by the Financial Times.
They added that Glencore paid a Nigerian middleman more than €4 million disguised as service fees.
Court to announce verdict this week: The report noted that A UK subsidiary of the commodity trader and mining group will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court this week after pleading guilty in June to seven counts of bribery, following a serious fraud office probe.
The report said,
- “Glencore set aside $1.5bn to settle a series of global probes, including about $1.1bn for US authorities As the SFO’s investigation focused on Glencore’s London office and its west Africa desk, which sourced oil across the continent.
- “The money was transported, often by private jet, from Nigeria to Cameroon to a Glencore oil trader who used it to pay bribes, according to the SFO, with $13.7mn paid to officials in Cameroon’s national oil and gas company and the country’s national refinery in the three years to March 1, 2015.
The court revealed Glencore had used a Swiss cash desk to dispense money to be used for bribery.
The trader on the West Africa desk withdrew €6.3 million in cash from this desk through a series of transactions listed as “office expenses”.
The report added that the court heard that the SFO had received evidence from Anthony Stimler, a UK citizen who worked on the company’s west Africa desk until 2019 and pleaded guilty to charges in the US last year. He confirmed that payments to the Nigerian agent were a “sham” to disguise their true purpose.
Previous cases of bribe:
- Recall It was reported in May that Global mining giant, Glencore, earned profits of $124 million after paying bribes to Nigerian officials worth $52 million between 2007 and 2018.
- This was disclosed by the US Justice Department in a Bloomberg report after the company agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle US, UK, and Brazilian probes.
- The court filing disclosed the company schemed to reach senior government officials in Nigeria within the period by using code words for bribes, including “newspapers” and “chocolates”.
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