Commodities giant Glencore is ordered to pay over $150M in wake of Congo mining bribery case

GENEVA (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Switzerland said Monday they have found Glencore's international unit “criminally liable" and ordered the commodities giant to pay over $150 million in fines and compensation after ending a probe of bribery in connection with Congo's mining industry over a decade ago.

The Swiss attorney general's office said Glencore International AG failed to take adequate measures to prevent bribery of a Congolese public official by a business partner over its purchase in 2011 of minority stakes in two companies from the central African country's state mining company.

Glencore did not admit to the findings but said it would not appeal.

The Switzerland-based company said the attorney general's office did not find that any company employees knew of the bribery by the business partner, nor did Glencore “benefit financially” from the partner's conduct.

Glencore International was handed a fine of 2 million Swiss francs (about $2.4 million) and ordered to pay a “compensation claim” of $150 million in connection with the estimated benefit to the partner.

Glencore and other international commodities companies regularly face scrutiny and criticism from non-governmental groups and authorities over the tactics they use to win contracts and business in developing countries with large amounts of oil, diamonds, minerals and other coveted natural resources.

Glencore already reached a deal in 2022 with Congo's government to pay $180 million over bribery allegations spanning from 2007 to 2018.

Chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said Glencore has “invested heavily” to improve its ethics and compliance program and noted that two independent compliance monitors, who have a three-year term under a mandate in a resolution with the U.S. Justice Department, began their work in the middle of last year.