Prosecutors said before a London court on Wednesday that employees and agents of a British unit of mining and trading company Glencore used private aircraft to transport money to pay bribes to oil authorities in West Africa.
In June 2022, Glencore formally entered a guilty plea to seven charges of bribery related to oil activities in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan.
Glencore Energy agreed at a Southwark Crown Court hearing in London, to have paid more than $28 million in bribes between 2011 and 2016 to gain privileged access to oil and make illegal profits.
Last week Wednesday, a London court rejected Nigeria’s attempt to recover damages from Glencore for bribery given to employees of the country’s national oil company, NNPC Ltd.
Nigerian officials were meant to have addressed the court on November 2 and 3 when Glencore Energy would be sentenced after pleading guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in five African countries, including Nigeria.
Nigeria, however, was ruled not to have the right to be heard, according to Judge Peter Fraser, as only the prosecution—in this case, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO)—and the defence were permitted to present their cases during a sentencing hearing.
Due to the fact that two of the offences to which Glencore Energy had pled guilty include payments made to representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria claimed in written submissions that it is “an identifiable victim of Glencore’s confessed criminal behaviour.”
The SFO had contended that “even if they consider themselves to be the victims of crime,” people or organisations who are not parties to a criminal case do not have the right to address the court before sentencing.
On the first day of a sentencing hearing, Glencore Energy UK Limited was accused of paying or failing to stop paying millions of dollars in bribes to officials in five African countries.
According to prosecutor Alexandra Healey, the UK subsidiary bought “favourable treatment” for the sale of crude oil by paying bribes through an oil trader working on the West Africa desk at its London office.
She testified before the court that the unnamed Glencore employee received assistance from the firm’s representative in Nigeria, where the money was taken and often flown by private plane to Cameroon.
Before taking a private plane to South Sudan with a colleague, a second unnamed employee allegedly asked to take $800,000 in cash from Glencore International AG’s cash desk in Switzerland, according to Healey.
The money was subsequently given to Glencore’s agent in South Sudan, who used part of it to bribe government representatives who may have a say in how crude oil shipments were distributed, she continued.
In connection with a total of $26.9 million in payments made “mainly [to] executives in state-owned oil corporations” in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria, Healey said Glencore had admitted guilt to five charges of bribery.
A part of the $1 million sent to agents in Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan, according to Healey, was used to pay bribes to gain “important oil contracts,” and Glencore has guilty to two charges of failing to prevent bribery over those payments.
Healey said “the approval and offering of bribes was an acceptable way of doing business for the company” and that “corruption was endemic within the corporation”.
The SFO’s investigation into specific individuals’ behaviour “continues,” she added in her statement before Judge Peter Fraser. On Thursday, the court is expected to make a decision about the severity of the sentence.
According to Clare Montgomery, who is the attorney for Glencore, the court’s sentencing was attended by Kalidas Madhavpeddi, the company’s chairman who assumed his position in 2021.
She added: “The company unreservedly regrets the harm caused by these offences and recognises the harm caused, both at national and public levels in the African states concerned, as well as the damage caused to others.”
The multinational corporation Glencore, with headquarters in Switzerland, has already stated that it anticipates paying up to $1.5 billion to resolve claims of bribery and market manipulation, and three of its subsidiaries have already admitted to criminal charges in the United States, Brazil, and Britain.
