Mining Giant, Glencore Paid Nigerian Officials $52 Million Bribe, Earned $124 Million

• Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company, Glencore gave Nigeria official bribes of abour $52 million between 2007 and 2018
• A report said that the bribes enabled the company to rake in about $124 million from oil deals in Nigeria via the help of government officials
• Glencore units agreed to plead guilty to a list of charges that range from bribery and corruption in South America and Africa

With a string of coded words, mining giant, Glencore made profits of $124 million after giving out $52 million worth of bribes to Nigerian officials between 2007 and 2018.

According to a Bloomberg report, the US Justice Department said after Glencore agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle US, UK and Brazilian probes.

$14 million given as bribes by Glencore via intermediary

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The court said that the firm manoeuvred to get to senior government officials in Nigeria within the period using coded slang for bribes which includes newspapers and chocolates.

The report cited facts from emails, stating that staff at the Glencore UK units employed coded language to hide their discussions of bribe payments, calling them newspapers, journals or pages.

The report said that in November 2018, a Glencore trader told an agent via an email that the sum of $90,000 payment was required to cover the cost of a newspaper reading material, being a code word for bribes to undervalue the price of oil for the benefit of the company, a court document said.

The prosecution said that in 2011, a Glencore executive met with one of its intermediaries in West Africa and a Nigerian government official in London to talk about a swap deal that would let Glencore buy refined crude from Nigeria.

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Code words employed to deceive

The company’s representative known as Executive 1 agreed to pay $14 million through the West African intermediary with the knowledge that those funds would be used as a bribe, saying that the money was given in March of 2011, from where the agent took out $1 million and gave it to the Nigerian official as a bribe.

The intermediary refunded $8 million when Glencore decided not to go on with the deal.

Glencore units agreed to plead guilty to a list of charges that range from bribery and corruption in South America and Africa, as Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said at a press conference: “The tone from the top was clear: whatever it takes” citing $100 million in bribes to government officials in Brazil, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela. The company will pay $1.5 billion to settle US, UK and Brazilian probes after admitting to bribery charges.

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NNPC, NLPGA, MTN top list as FIRS reveals top-performing taxpayers in Nigeria, Dangote missing from top 10

Recall that Legit.ng has reported that the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS has published its Top tax-compliant companies in 2021.

The list revealed on Twitter showed that of the top ten companies listed, 8 are in Nigeria’s Oil and gas space and 2 in Nigeria’s telecoms space.

The disclosure was made in a report FIRS titled Accolades For Our Tax-Complaint Companies In 2021.

Source: Legit.ng