Glencore, accused of corruption, will plead guilty in the UK

Commodities giant Glencore faces seven counts of corruption in the UK linked to its oil business in various African countries. The Zug group has indicated that it will plead guilty, the officer in charge of fraud in the United Kingdom, the SFO, which led the investigation, announced on Tuesday.

The SFO opened an investigation against Glencore in June 2019. The office found that employees of the commodities giant paid bribes of more than $25 million to access oil in Cameroon, Guinea Equatoriale, in Ivory Coast, in Nigeria and in Sudan, indicates an official statement of the SFO.

The SFO worked in collaboration with the judicial authorities of Switzerland, the United States and the Netherlands.

At a hearing in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, Glencore said the company will plead guilty.

The SFO's next hearing and oral argument will be held on June 21 at Southwark Crown Court.

In mid-February, Glencore announced that it was the subject of investigations in the United States, Great Britain and Brazil, procedures which should be completed this year. At the end of 2021, the group had made a provision of $ 1.5 billion for these cases, without specifying what it came out of.