Glencore plc

On May 24, 2022, Glencore Ltd. and Glencore International AG entered guilty pleas in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The company admitted that its employees and agents paid more than $100 million in bribes to government officials in six countries to obtain oil contracts and preferential business treatment. Countries and documented bribe amounts: Nigeria ($29.6 million), Cameroon ($26.5 million), Ivory Coast ($18.8 million), Equatorial Guinea ($10.5 million), Brazil ($39.9 million), Venezuela ($7.5 million). Criminal fine: $428.5 million. On the same day the DOJ announced the guilty plea, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Glencore Energy UK Ltd. for seven counts of bribery under the UK Bribery Act 2010, covering Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan. The UK fine: £280.98 million — described at the time as the largest corporate DPA in UK history. Brazil's Comptroller General reached a separate leniency agreement in December 2022 for conduct tied to Petrobras. In total, across U.S., UK, and Brazilian enforcement: more than $1.5 billion in bribery-related penalties. The conduct was not rogue; it was systemic. The DOJ described a culture in which "bribery was endemic" to Glencore's West African oil trading activities. Traders embedded in Lagos, Abuja, Douala, Abidjan, and Caracas coordinated payments through agents paid fictitious commissions. The scheme ran for more than a decade — 2007 to 2018 — through Glencore's highest-revenue years under CEO Ivan Glasenberg. Glasenberg personally held approximately 8.9% of Glencore's shares at the time of the IPO, making him a billionaire whose fortune was built during the years the bribery occurred. No executives were criminally charged in the United States.

• —DOJ guilty plea (May 24, 2022): conspiracy to violate FCPA — Glencore Ltd. and Glencore International AG. SDNY.
• —Six countries named in DOJ plea: Nigeria ($29.6M in bribes), Cameroon ($26.5M), Ivory Coast ($18.8M), Equatorial Guinea ($10.5M), Brazil ($39.9M), Venezuela ($7.5M).
• —Criminal fine: $428.5M (DOJ). UK SFO DPA fine: £280.98M. Brazilian CGU leniency: ~$39.7M. Total bribery-related: over $1.5B.
• —UK SFO DPA (June 2022): seven counts, UK Bribery Act 2010. Countries: Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan. Described as largest UK corporate bribery DPA in history at the time.
• —Conduct period: 2007–2018 — spanning the entire tenure of CEO Ivan Glasenberg (2002–2021).
• —DOJ: bribery was "endemic" to Glencore's West African oil trading. Traders paid "fictitious agent commissions" to disguise bribe payments.
• —Glencore's stock price rose the day the plea was announced — the market had priced in worse outcomes.
• —No U.S. executives imprisoned. Two former traders pled guilty separately to US charges as cooperating individuals.
• —Glencore was founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, who fled to Switzerland before trial on 65 federal criminal counts including illegal oil trading with Iran during the hostage crisis. Clinton pardoned Rich in 2001.

On May 24, 2022 — the same day Glencore pled guilty to FCPA bribery — the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a $1.186 billion consent order against Glencore Ltd. and related entities for manipulation of U.S. crude oil and fuel oil products markets. This is the largest commodity trading manipulation settlement in CFTC history. The CFTC found that Glencore traders, from at least 2007 to 2018, engaged in a pattern of manipulative trading designed to move benchmark prices in directions that benefited the company's own physical and derivatives positions. The manipulation targeted multiple products: U.S. crude oil (WTI), high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO), and other distillates. Glencore's dominant physical trading positions — among the largest in the world for certain products — gave its traders both the ability to influence benchmarks and the incentive to do so. The CFTC described traders coordinating across Glencore's Baar, London, and U.S. offices. The same traders involved in commodity manipulation were, in overlapping years, operating in the same countries implicated in the bribery scheme. Both enforcement actions were announced the same week. Three jurisdictions. One company. One decade. Glencore's 2022 full-year revenue: $255.9 billion. The $1.186 billion CFTC settlement represented less than 0.5% of one year's revenue.

• —CFTC consent order (May 24, 2022): $1.186 billion — largest commodity trading manipulation settlement in CFTC history.
• —Manipulation of: U.S. crude oil (WTI), high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO), and related distillates.
• —Conduct period: at least 2007–2018. Eleven years. Overlaps exactly with FCPA bribery conduct.
• —CFTC: Glencore traders coordinated to move benchmark prices to benefit own physical and derivatives positions.
• —Glencore's dominant physical trading scale gave traders unique market-moving capacity.
• —Announced same week as DOJ guilty plea and UK SFO DPA — coordinated multi-agency resolution.
• —Glencore 2022 revenue: $255.9 billion. CFTC settlement: less than 0.5% of one year's revenue.
• —No individual traders criminally charged in connection with the commodity manipulation.

Glencore controls or controlled multiple of the world's largest cobalt and copper producing operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. In the DRC, Glencore's Katanga Copper Company (KCC) and Mutanda Mining operated at the center of the global cobalt supply chain — at peak, Mutanda alone produced approximately 25% of global cobalt output, feeding into EV battery supply chains for Tesla, LG, and Samsung, and consumer electronics supply chains for Apple and Samsung. UK human rights NGO RAID documented, in multiple reports from 2016 to 2021, that KCC's leach pad operations discharged acid mine drainage into the Luilu River — the primary drinking water and domestic water source for downstream communities in Kolwezi. RAID's 2016 OECD National Contact Point complaint documented sulfur dioxide emissions from the Lualaba copper smelter linked to respiratory disease in surrounding communities. In 2016, Amnesty International published "This Is What We Die For — Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Power the Global Trade in Cobalt," naming specific sites within and adjacent to Glencore's Mutanda and Katanga concession areas near Kolwezi where artisanal miners — including children as young as 7 — were working in dangerous conditions. Glencore's response: it does not purchase from artisanal miners. RAID's response: artisanal mining occurs on and around concession land Glencore controls and where Glencore has legal obligations for site safety. In Zambia, the EU commissioned an audit of Glencore's Mopani Copper Mines (Mufulira operations) in 2011. The Grant Thornton audit found that Mopani had systematically underreported production and falsified environmental compliance filings. Measured SO2 emissions ran at 5× declared levels; the Kafue River downstream showed documented fish kills from the Mufulira smelter. The Zambian Environmental Management Agency issued repeated citations. Glencore contested the audit's methodology while retaining the operational benefit of years of underreported production — which reduced royalty and tax obligations as well as environmental compliance costs.

• —RAID UK (2016, 2018, 2021): acid mine drainage from KCC leach pads into Luilu River, Kolwezi DRC — documented primary water source contamination affecting downstream communities.
• —Lualaba copper smelter (KCC, Glencore): SO2 emissions linked to respiratory disease in Kolwezi communities — documented in RAID OECD complaint.
• —Amnesty International (January 2016): "This Is What We Die For" — named Glencore-adjacent concession sites near Kolwezi among DRC sites where children aged 7+ were mining cobalt in dangerous conditions.
• —Mutanda Mining (Glencore 100% until 2019): produced ~25% of global cobalt at peak. Supply chain flows to Tesla, LG, Samsung SDI (EV batteries) and Apple, Samsung (consumer electronics).
• —Glencore suspended Mutanda operations in 2019, citing "cobalt market conditions." Operations resumed 2022.
• —Mopani Copper Mines (Zambia, Glencore subsidiary): Grant Thornton audit (2011, EU-commissioned): falsified environmental compliance data; SO2 at 5× declared levels; Kafue River fish kills documented.
• —Zambian Environmental Management Agency: multiple citations issued to Mopani. Glencore contested methodology.
• —Underreported production at Mopani reduced royalty/tax obligations and environmental compliance costs over multiple years — dual financial benefit from falsification.