Unlock the Editor’s Digest at no cost
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has charged the commodity dealer Trafigura with bribing international officers in Angola.
In a prison indictment filed on Wednesday, Trafigura and its former chief working officer Mike Wainwright had been accused by Swiss investigators of arranging about €5mn of bribes to an Angolan authorities official between 2009 and 2011.
In return, the official, who was additionally charged, authorised eight ship-chartering contracts and one bunkering contract that resulted in earnings of $143.7mn for Trafigura, in accordance with prosecutors.
It is the primary time Swiss prosecutors have introduced prison prices towards an organization for bribing international officers.
Trafigura mentioned the costs had been linked to investigations by authorities within the US and Brazil, revealing for the primary the time that it had made a provision of $127mn in its 2023 accounts, on account of be filed on Friday, to resolve a probe by the US Department of Justice over previous “improper payments” in Brazil.
In an announcement, Swiss prosecutors alleged that Trafigura’s inside rules and tradition “[were] not in conformity with international standards on preventing and combating corruption and [were] not apt to prevent the high risk of corruption associated with the Trafigura group’s activities”. The failings went as much as the “highest level” of the corporate, it mentioned.
“We sincerely regret these incidents which breached our code of conduct and are contrary to our values,” Trafigura chief government Jeremy Weir mentioned in an announcement.
The Swiss prices come as Trafigura is already in courtroom in London in a high-profile dispute with a former buyer over a multimillion-dollar buying and selling fraud, which the commodities dealer claims it was a sufferer of.
Swiss prosecutors accuse Wainwright, who was not named within the indictment, of approving bribes to the Angolan official, who was additionally not named, together with €4.35mn paid to a checking account in Geneva and $600,000 paid in money in Angola.
The official allegedly involved was chief government of Sonangol Distribuidora, a subsidiary of Angola’s state-owned oil firm Sonangol, which is accountable for advertising and delivery the African nation’s petroleum merchandise. The official couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
A 3rd unnamed particular person — a former Trafigura worker — was accused of facilitating the bribe funds by way of an offshore entity.
Trafigura mentioned the ex-employee was a former advisor to DT Group, which was a three way partnership shaped in 2009 by Trafigura and Cochan Holdings LLC, an funding car managed by a former army adviser to Angola’s then president, José Eduardo dos Santos.
Under dos Santos, who dominated Angola for nearly 4 many years earlier than dropping energy in 2017, Trafigura dominated the availability of petroleum merchandise in Angola, producing bumper earnings that supported the corporate’s transformation from a scrap dealer into a worldwide commodity big.
In an announcement, Trafigura mentioned it had been prepared to resolve the probe and would now “defend itself” in courtroom. It had “significantly enhanced” its compliance processes because the interval in query, the corporate added.
Wainwright joined Trafigura in 1996 and was probably the most senior folks within the firm for greater than a decade. He served as chief working officer from 2008 till April of this yr, when Trafigura signalled his intention to retire from the corporate in March 2024.
Trafigura mentioned Wainwright “rejects the charges against him”. He couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
https://www.ft.com/content/cbef56e4-ff82-4a1e-9e4d-061debdc2795
