A subsidiary of the mining company Glencore pled guilty to corruption charges in a British court for the second time in two months.
It was accused of spending millions in bribes to gain access to crude oil in many African nations.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) discovered that bribes were paid between 2012 and 2016.
It was determined that around $28m (£22.8m) in bribes were paid by employees and representatives of the Swiss company.
According to the bribery charges, the company wanted officials to “perform their jobs illegally or be rewarded for doing so by excessively favoring Glencore Energy UK Limited in the allocation of crude oil cargoes, the dates crude oil would be lifted, and the grades of crude oil allocated.
Additionally, the mining giant pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the United States and Brazil.
Glencore anticipates paying up to $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) in fines but is presently experiencing record profits.
Profits for the first half of the year are expected to exceed $3 billion (£2.4 billion) due to sales of metals, minerals, and agricultural goods.
Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, a subsidiary of the company pled guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, and South Sudan.
According to the SFO, Glencore attempted to gain access to oil and illicitly profit from its oil operations in five nations.
There are also ongoing investigations in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
In the United States, the company settled a decade-long plan to bribe officials in seven nations for $1.1 billion (£900 million) last month.
It pertained to the mining company’s operations in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Venezuela.
In May, when Glencore pled guilty to seven counts of bribery, the SFO stated that it had uncovered “profit-driven bribery and corruption” throughout Glencore Energy UK’s oil operations in five African countries.
Concerning the bribery charges, it pled guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the chairman of Glencore at the time stated that “unacceptable practices” had occurred.
Between 2011 and 2016, the company’s agents and employees paid more than $25 million in bribes for preferential access to oil, according to the SFO.
“Lowest-hanging fruit”
Spotlight on Corruption, a lobbying organization, stated that the accusations were “hugely significant” but raised “questions about the SFO’s ambition as our elite anti-corruption agency.”
Helen Taylor, the legal researcher for the NGO, stated that even though Glencore is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is headquartered in Jersey, the SFO has “only investigated” the UK subsidiary’s oil operations in a few African nations.
“Given the extraordinary scale of corruption that has been found in the company’s global operations, this is low-hanging fruit,” she concluded.
“To date, responsibility for corporate misconduct has been mostly limited to “failure to prevent” offenses.
“Today’s guilty plea by Glencore should send a clear message that corporations will be held accountable for senior executives’ role in corporate wrongdoing.
Ms. Taylor continued, “The reality is that bribery remains hidden in the shadows until courageous whistleblowers, investigative journalists, and civil society exposes corporate wrongdoing to public scrutiny.”
In November, Glencore will be sentenced to a two-day trial at the Southwark Crown Court.
