The Swiss commodity trading giant, Glencore, was condemned Thursday by British justice for acts of corruption in Africa. The firm was fined 320 million euros.
The decision was made by Southwark Crown Court in London following an investigation by UK authorities. Launched in 2019, this investigation revealed that Glencore paid, through employees and agents, bribes over $28 million. The objective was to obtain preferential access to oil from Nigeria, Cameroon, from Ivory CoastEquatorial Guinea and South Sudan.
Behaviours “ inexcusable »
The company pleaded guilty and was fined 320 million euros. ” The behavior observed is inexcusable and has no place at Glencore “Commented in a press release the president of the company, Kalidas Madhavpeddi.
In delivering his verdict, Judge Peter Fraser noted not only criminal facts, ” but also sophisticated devices to conceal them, including the taking of large sums of cash for purportedly legitimate purposes, used for corrupt purposes, such as expenses related to the opening of a new office “.
Facts ” scandalous “, judge Akere Muna, former president of the NGO Transparency International and now a member of the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: “ We know that Glencore has admitted having paid bribes in Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan, the DRC and Equatorial Guinea. And we know that in some cases like in Cameroon, the money was transferred to Nigeria, then a Nigerian agent took private jets to bring species in Cameroon“.
Disappointment
He said he was very disappointed by the lack of reactions and prosecutions in the African countries concerned. ” When we talk about corruption, there is corrupt, and corrupter “recalls the Cameroonian lawyer. And to add: What is most scandalous is that in our countries, we are not moving. People are said to have committed crimes in a country. My reaction is to say: who are these people? There must be a reaction from justice and anti-corruption agencies “.