Glencore PLC said on Monday the attorney general of Switzerland has ended its corruption investigation into its subsidiary Glencore International AG, slapping it with a minor fine.
The attorney general has since June 2020 been probing Glencore International for failing to put in place measures to prevent alleged corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Glencore has also been the subject of various investigations by the US Department of Justice, the DRC’s National Financial Intelligence Unit and Ministry of Justice, the UK Serious Fraud Office, as well as from authorities in Brazil.
On Monday, Glencore said its unit has been sentenced to a fine of fr.2 million and faced a compensation claim of $150 million, an estimated benefit obtained by the business partner.
Glencore said it has agreed not to appeal the ‘summary penalty order’.
This order holds Glencore International criminally liable for failing to have taken all ‘necessary and reasonable organisational measures’ to prevent the bribery of a Congolese public official by a business partner in 2011. The alleged bribery relates to the acquisition from the state-owned mining company by that business partner of minority stakes in two mining companies in the DRC.
The attorney general of Switzerland stated that it did not identify that any Glencore employees had any knowledge of the bribery by the business partner, nor did Glencore benefit financially from the conduct of the business partner, Glencore said.
The parallel investigation by the Dutch Prosecution Service has also been concluded, and the case was dismissed following the resolution of the Swiss investigation, Glencore said.
‘Glencore is pleased to have resolved these investigations relating to past matters that occurred over 13 years ago. This resolves the last of the previously disclosed government investigations into historical misconduct,’ Glencore Chair Kalidas Madhavpeddi said.
Glencore shares shed 5.3% to 383.76 pence each on Monday afternoon in London, while in Johannesburg, shares were 2.9% lower at R 91.38 each.
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