Glencore pleads guilty to bribery in London court

A British subsidiary of Swiss commodities giant Glencore on Tuesday pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in several African countries. At a court in London, Glencore Energy formally admitted to paying more than $28 million (CHF27.1 million) in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and generate illicit profit between 2011 and 2016, the Reuters news agency said. The countries concerned are Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan. The company will be sentenced in the UK on November 2 and 3, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said. Glencore has already said it expects to pay up to $1.5 billion to settle allegations of bribery and market manipulation. Three subsidiaries in the US, Brazil and now the UK have pleaded guilty to criminal offences. The company still faces investigations in Switzerland and the Netherlands. But after sweeping changes that culminated in the exit of CEO and top shareholder Ivan Glasenberg...