British prosecutors investigating former Glencore employees over bribery allegations said they plan to bring long-awaited criminal charges.
More than 18 months after first revealing that as many as 11 ex-staffers were under investigation, the Serious Fraud Office told a London judge on Monday that it had sought government approval to charge individuals. It’s the first time the agency has committed to press individual criminal convictions following Glencore’s own guilty plea in 2022.
The SFO didn’t say how many individuals will be charged but said it expected some to appear in court as soon as September.
The commodity trading industry has been dogged by anti-corruption investigations for years, but few individual traders or bosses have faced prosecution until recently. The SFO previously said the investigation into the individual Glencore employees makes allegations of serious criminality.
Glencore was hit with a £276-million fine by a London judge after pleading guilty to coordinating a sprawling effort to bribe government officials for access to oil cargoes across Africa.
Prosecutors focused in on the firm’s London trading desk, saying Glencore’s traders and executives paid more than $28-million in bribes to secure access to oil cargoes between 2011 and 2016. The SFO said previously that its investigation showed the commodity trader paid for preferential access to oil, including increased cargoes, valuable grades of oil and preferable dates of delivery, between 2011 and 2016.