Glencore to pay $1bn settlement amid US bribery and market abuse allegations

theguardian.com:

The commodities trading giant Glencore will pay a $1bn (£800m) US settlement and has indicated it will plead guilty to seven counts of bribery in the UK related to its oil operations in Africa.

Glencore, a member of the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s biggest public companies, said it would pay penalties of $700m to resolve US bribery investigations and $485m to resolve market manipulation investigations, with some reductions in anticipation of settlements in other countries.

The company also indicated a UK subsidiary would plead guilty to charges heard at Westminster magistrates court in London on Tuesday, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office said in a statement.

The charges came after investigations by US and UK authorities, started in 2018 and 2019, respectively. When Glencore first revealed the US Department of Justice investigation in 2018 it said that documents were requested related to business dealings dating as far back as 2007.

The SFO said it had found “profit-driven bribery and corruption across the company’s oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan”.

“Glencore agents and employees paid bribes worth over $25m for preferential access to oil, with approval by the company,” the SFO said.

In February, the company said it had set aside $1.5bn to cover potential fines and costs related to bribery and corruption investigations in the UK, US and Brazil. Although the settlement is significant, it is still smaller than the $4bn Glencore announced – on the same day – would be returned to shareholders after record profits.

A sentencing hearing will take place on 21 June, when payments it must make will be determined, although Glencore said that it did not expect the total fines to exceed the