Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Glencore Energy U.K. Ltd. has been ordered to pay approximately $315 million in fines after an investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office determined the company paid $29 million in bribes to gain access to oil in Africa.
Justice Fraser of the Southwark Crown Court said Glencore had created a corporate culture "in which bribery was accepted as part of the West Africa desk's way of doing business."
"This is a significant overall total. Other companies tempted to engage in similar corruption should be aware that similar sanctions lie ahead," Fraser said of the penalty.
After launching its investigation of Glencore in 2019 the SFO uncovered a series of text messages and concealed payments implicating the London-based West Africa Desk in bribery schemes.
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The investigation discovered that Glencore was using local contacts to funnel bribes, disguised as service fees and signing bonuses, to state-affiliated oil companies and ministries in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
In 2015 two Glencore officials flew to South Sudan via private jet carrying $800,000 in cash bribes which had been withdrawn from the company's Swiss office under the pretext of being used to establish an office in the newly independent country.
"This has been a landmark case in U.K. anti-bribery enforcement, marking the first time since the introduction of the Bribery Act 2010 that a corporate has been convicted for the active authorization of bribery rather than purely a failure to prevent it," said Serious Fraud Office Director Lisa Osofsky.
"For years, and across the globe, Glencore pursued profits to the detriment of national governments in some of the poorest countries in the world. The company's ruthless greed and criminality have been rightfully exposed," Osofsky added.
Glencore has also been charged with bribery and market manipulation in the United States. A subsidiary has been ordered to pay $485.6 million to resolve market manipulation investigations.
