Glencore to pay $152 million fine in bribery case

Glencore Plc (LON: GLEN) has been fined $152 million by Swiss authorities for failing to prevent a business partner from bribing a Congolese public official in 2011.

In a statement released on Monday, the Swiss attorney general’s office (OAG) said that prosecutors determined Glencore did not take sufficient measures to prevent the bribery.

The incident is related to the business partner’s acquisition of minority stakes in two mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from a state-owned enterprise.

The miner said it does not admit the findings but has agreed not to appeal the penalty order so it can resolve the matter.

“Glencore is pleased to have resolved these investigations relating to past matters that occurred over 13 years ago,” group chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said in a statement.

“This resolves the last of the previously disclosed government investigations into historical misconduct.”

“The OAG stated in the summary penalty order that it did not identify that any Glencore employees had any knowledge of the bribery by the business partner, nor did Glencore benefit financially from the conduct of the business partner,” Glencore said in its statement. 

A parallel investigation by the Dutch Prosecution Service has also been concluded and dismissed.

In 2022, the company agreed to pay the DRC government $180 million to settle alleged corruption claims in the country between 2007 and 2018.

With the latest fine, Glencore will have paid at least $1.7 billion to resolve various investigations into bribery and corruption worldwide.

In 2022, the company pleaded guilty to corruption and market manipulation cases in the US and UK, admitting that it had paid bribes to win business in eight countries from Brazil to South Sudan.

(With files from Bloomberg)