Gunvor’s Geneva Offices Searched in Corruption Probe
(Bloomberg) — Swiss police last month searched the offices of commodities trading firm Gunvor Group in Geneva.
The searches were conducted as part of a criminal probe into “persons unknown,” suspected of corruption, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said on Tuesday. The term is used by Swiss prosecutors when it’s not yet clear who is suspected of criminal wrongdoing. The AG’s office declined to give further details of the probe.
A Gunvor spokesperson said that it was cooperating with the authorities after having disclosed the findings of an internal investigation into suspected fraudulent activities perpetrated against it by a counterparty and a former employee. Gunvor itself is not a target of the Swiss investigation, the spokesperson said.
It’s the latest in a string of corruption probes into the commodity trading industry. Gunvor itself in 2024 pleaded guilty to bribing government officials in Ecuador, and in 2019 was fined by Switzerland over historical corruption in Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast.
The latest searches were first reported by Swiss nonprofit Public Eye, which on Tuesday published a lengthy investigation into Gunvor’s activities in Gabon, where in 2024 it struck a landmark $800 million deal to finance the government’s purchase of oil producer Assala Energy.
The Gunvor spokesperson said that the company had initiated its internal investigation after allegations surrounding the Assala deal, but that the suspected fraud it found was “separate” and “unrelated to the Assala Energy acquisition.”
Gunvor did not identify any corruption or bribery related to the Assala deal, the spokesperson said.
The suspected fraud involved approximately $2 million of fraudulent overcharges by the counterparty, a maritime service provider, over a five-year period, according to the spokesperson.
Following the internal investigation, Gunvor fired its employee, disclosed its findings to the relevant authorities, and filed a criminal complaint against the counterparty in Dubai, the spokesperson said.
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