Glencore to pay $180 million over alleged Congo corruption claims

Congolese demonstrators protest outside Glencore's headquarters in Baar, canton Zug, on July 23, 2018. © Keystone / Urs Flueeler

Swiss-based Glencore said on Monday it would pay $180 million (CHF168 million) to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of an agreement covering all present and future claims to alleged corruption by the mining firm in the country between 2007 and 2018.

The commodity trading and mining group saidExternal link the agreement covered corruption allegations including activities in “certain group businesses that had been the subject of various investigations by, among others, the US Department of Justice and the DRC’s National Financial Intelligence Unit and Ministry of Justice”.

Kalidas Madhavpeddi, the group’s chair, said the Zug-based firm is pleased to have reached this agreement “which addresses the consequences of its past actions”.

Glencore, which owns copper, nickel and coal mines around the world and has a large commodities trading division, has faced various investigations into its global operations.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice launched a wide-ranging investigation and requested the company hand over records related to its compliance with the country’s money-laundering laws and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Venezuela.

In May 2022, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged the group’s subsidiary Glencore Energy UK with seven cases of profit-driven bribery and corruption in connection to oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.

Swiss-based Glencore subsequently pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery and market manipulation and agreed to pay penalties of up to $1.5 billion (CHF1.45 billion) following the US, UK and Brazilian investigations that uncovered corruption at one of the world’s largest commodity traders.