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The UK Serious Fraud Office has charged Glencore’s billionaire ex-head of oil Alex Beard and four other former executives with conspiring to make corrupt payments after a long-running investigation into allegations of bribery by the UK-listed commodity trader in Africa.
Beard, who ran Glencore’s oil division between 2007 and his retirement in 2019, became a billionaire when the company listed in London in 2011 and is the highest profile commodity trader to be charged with corruption in the UK.
Beard was charged along with former colleagues Andrew Gibson, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga and Martin Wakefield in relation to oil contracts awarded in Glencore’s interests, the SFO said on Thursday. The defendants must appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 10.
The fraud agency first opened an investigation into Glencore in 2019 over allegations of bribery connected to its London-based West Africa desk, which sourced and traded crude oil across the continent. The SFO was initially planning to announce charges last year but was forced to delay the decision after it received more evidence.
Beard, 56, faces two counts of conspiring to make corrupt payments to government officials and officials of state-owned companies in Nigeria between 2010 and 2014 and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014, while Hopkirk, 50, and Labiaga, 55, are both facing one charge of conspiring to make corrupt payments to Nigerian officials between 2010 and 2014.
Gibson, 64, and Wakefield, 64, have been charged with four and three counts respectively in relation to conspiracies to make corrupt payments to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast at various periods between 2007 and 2014. The pair were also charged with one count of falsifying documents between 2007 and 2011.
Glencore was founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, widely viewed as the godfather of the modern commodity trading industry, who fled to Switzerland when faced with US criminal charges in 1983 for trading with Iran.
Based in the Swiss town of Baar and listed in London, Glencore has evolved into a commodity giant with mines and trading operations across the world. It has long faced scrutiny over some of its activities.
The charges against the former executives are the latest in a series of cases brought by European and US prosecutors against commodity trading companies or their executives.
Mike Wainwright, chief operating officer of rival Trafigura, was charged by Swiss investigators in December with arranging bribes in Angola between 2009 and 2010. Trafigura has said Wainwright rejects the charges against him.
A former oil trader at Vitol was convicted by a US court in February of organising more than $1mn in bribes in Ecuador and Mexico between 2015 and 2020.
The SFO had to seek permission from the attorney-general for England and Wales to bring the charges due to the legislation the SFO is using to prosecute the individuals. The UK general election meant that decision was passed from former attorney-general Victoria Prentis to the newly appointed Richard Hermer last month.
The SFO was originally looking at as many as 11 former Glencore executives over the conduct. The names of suspects have been protected to date by a reporting restriction from the court.
“Bribery damages financial markets and causes lasting harm to communities,” said Nick Ephgrave, the SFO’s director, in a statement. “Today’s action is an important step towards exposing overseas corruption and holding those who are responsible to account.”