By John Ikani
Mining and commodities giant Glencore will be forced to pay £281m in fines, confiscated profits and costs as punishment for “sustained criminality,” the largest ever payment imposed on a company in a UK court.
The ruling was made by Peter Fraser, presiding judge, at Southwark crown court on Thursday.
Glencore Energy UK Limited, which earlier this year admitted seven charges of bribery and failing to prevent bribery, was fined nearly £183 million and ordered to pay £4.5 million in prosecution costs.
It was also made subject to a confiscation order of £93 million, meaning it has to pay back criminally obtained assets.
Fraser said the offences to which Glencore had pleaded guilty represented “corporate corruption on a widespread scale, deploying very substantial sums of money in bribes.”
“The corruption is of extended duration, and took place across five separate countries in West Africa, but had its origins in the West Africa oil trading desk of the defendant in London. It was endemic amongst traders on that particular desk,” he said.
It is the first time that a British corporation has been convicted of authorising bribery from the top, while the £93 million is the largest amount to be recovered through confiscation in Britain, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said.
The SFO, which brought the prosecution, also said it was the first corporate prosecution under anti-bribery laws passed in 2010.
On Wednesday, prosecutors said employees and agents of Glencore, delivered cash in private jets to oil officials in West Africa including Nigeria.
Prosecutors focused on the firm’s London trading desk, saying Glencore’s traders and executives paid more than $28 million in bribes to secure access to oil cargoes between 2011 and 2016.
Recently, Nigeria was denied a bid to claim compensation from the mining company over bribes paid to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
