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Glencore settles corruption claims by paying penalties totaling $1.5B

Date: May 27, 2022 Omkar Patwardhan Omkar Patwardhan
Glencore settles corruption claims by paying penalties totaling $1.5B 
    
	
  • Glencore is anticipated to pay the $1.5 billion as part of settlements it reached with authorities in Britain, the United States, as well as Brazil.
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  • The settlements comes against the charges that the company offered bribes to secure oil contracts, stave off government audits, and prevent lawsuits from proceeding.
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Multinational commodity company, Glencore plc, has reportedly announced that the company has reached settlements, with authorities in Britain, the United States, and Brazil to resolve the allegations of corruption brought up against it, with the penalties totaling up to $1.5 billion.



Reportedly, the Anglo-Swiss company made an announcement and confirmed that it will pay $700 million to resolve a bribery probe in US and an additional $486 million settle market manipulation allegations.



The company stated that around $166 million of the settlement agreed with U.S. authorities would be credited to the U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s parallel investigation, where the firm has indicated that it plans to plead guilty to charges of bribery to court hearing to be held next month.



Additionally, the company would also be paying over $40 million to settle a probe into charges of bribery brought forth in Brazil.



As per reports, the United States Department of Justice, stated that the charges against the company are based on a decades oil scheme carried out by Glencore as well as its subsidiaries to make and hide corrupt payments as well as bribes to foreign officials in Latin America and Africa.



U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, stated that the scale of this criminal conspiracy is confounding.  Williams added that the company offered bribes to secure oil contracts, avoid government audits, and also stop lawsuits from proceeding.



Williams further stated that with the approval and encouragement of its higher executives, Glencore bribed its way to hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.



Meanwhile, Glencore chairman, Kalidas Madhavpeddi stated that Glencore is not the same company it was when the misconduct occurred. The chairman added that the company has maintained a commitment to act ethically and responsibly in all aspects of its business operations.



The company does not currently anticipate the total payments would differ materially from the announced $1.5 billion it has decided so far. However, the company still remains subject to probes in Switzerland as well as the Netherland.



Source credit: https://apnews.com/article/united-states-government-and-politics-16c2b73c6316d246b5cce55fc69c2204

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Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for numerous websites, including News Origins, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology.