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Mining and commodities giant Glencore has been ordered to pay £281m in fines, forfeited profits and penalties for “ongoing offences”, making it the highest wage ever imposed on a company in the UK.
At a hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court, a judge said the company’s UK subsidiary had exhibited “highly corrosive” bribery charges. Court hearing on how company workers and agents provided stoppers worth $27m to Nigeria, South Sudan, Ivory Coast and a number of other unnamed officials, causing damage worth $128m and £81m at the time of incident, The Guardian report.
The fine was cut by a third as the company pleaded guilty after bribery charges were brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office. The SFO said the workers used false documents to take cash bribes to Africa on private jets.
Glencore chairman Kaliidas Madhavpeddi attended the court hearing. The chairman later issued a statement saying the company had improved its ethics and compliance.
The company will pay a fine of $183 million, the largest amount paid in British history. The company will also pay SFO £93.5 million in forfeiture fees and £4.6 million in SFO fees.
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Glencore has set aside $1.5bn (£1.3bn) to cover costs related to bribery allegations. The company will also pay the U.S. $1.1 billion for bribery rules violations and commodity price-fixing.
In addition to the fine and additional reputational probe the firm faces, the firm’s partner, Iskander Fernandez, said a conviction for bribery would prevent companies from competing for government contracts.
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