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Glencore fined £582m over officials bribery corruption scandals
by cityam
LOUIS GOSS
GLENCORE has been fined $700m (£582m) over the corruption scandal that saw the company’s execs pay more than $100m in bribes to officials in Africa and South America.
A New York court has ordered Glencore to pay a $428.5m fine and forfeit a further $272m, after the commodities giant agreed a plea deal last May.
The May plea deal saw Glencore agree to pay $700m to US authorities after it admitted paying more than $100m in bribes to officials in Brazil, Venezuela, and five African countries, from 2007 to 2018.
The New York court’s order comes after Glencore agreed to pay a total $1.5bn to settle charges brought forward by US, UK and Brazilian authori- ties over the far-reaching corruption scandal.
In dealing with the UK charges, Glencore was ordered by a London court last November to pay £281m to settle seven charges brought against it by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The SFO charges specifically related to activities carried out by execs on Glencore’s West Africa trading desk that saw $29m in bribes paid to officials across seven African countries.
The Swiss firm separately agreed to pay more than $1bn to US authorities for bribing officials and manipulating oil markets, after also pledging to pay Brazilian authorities $40m.
Glencore still faces a raft of civil lawsuits brought forward against it by its own investors and the governments of African countries.
The Law Society said many solicitors were being forced to leave the legal aid sector
