Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Glencore’s billionaire ex-head of oil and five other former executives appeared in a London court for the first time to face corruption charges over the UK-listed commodity trader’s business in Africa.
Alex Beard, 57, who became a billionaire when Glencore listed in 2011, was in the dock at Westminster magistrates’ court on Tuesday alongside former colleagues Andrew Gibson, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga, Martin Wakefield and David Perez after the UK Serious Fraud Office announced the charges last month.
The hearing was the first time charges against Perez, 53, have been made public. The UK’s SFO has brought a variety of five charges against the defendants.
Beard faces two counts of conspiring to make corrupt payments to government officials and officials of state-owned companies in Nigeria to benefit Glencore between 2010 and 2014 and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014. Hopkirk, 50, and Labiaga, 55, each face one charge in relation to the alleged conduct in Nigeria.
Wakefield, 64, and Gibson, also 64, are both charged with three and four counts respectively of conspiring to make corrupt payments in Nigeria and Cameroon, as well as in the Ivory Coast between 2007 and 2010, while Perez faces two charges in relation to the alleged conduct in Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. Wakefield, Gibson and Perez are also charged with one count of falsifying documents between 2007 and 2011.
The charges come after a years-long investigation into bribery at Glencore by the SFO over allegations connected to its London-based west Africa desk, which sourced and traded crude oil across the continent.
It is the latest in a series of cases brought by European and US prosecutors against commodities trading companies or their executives.
Glencore was founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, widely viewed as the godfather of the modern commodities trading industry, who fled to Switzerland when faced with US criminal charges in 1983 for trading with Iran.
Based in the Swiss town of Baar and listed in London, Glencore has evolved into a commodities giant with mines and trading operations around the world.
From 2002 to 2021, the company was run by former chief executive Ivan Glasenberg, who remains its biggest shareholder.
Lawyers for Beard, Gibson and Hopkirk told the court that their clients were planning to enter not guilty pleas to the charges. The remaining defendants have not yet indicated their pleas. Another former colleague, Anthony Stimler, is also named in the indictment in relation to the alleged conduct in Nigeria. A lawyer for Stimler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group spoke only to confirm their names, ages and addresses as the charges were read out in court and all of them were released on unconditional bail. The case has been sent to Southwark Crown Court for the next hearing in October.
According to a copy of the charges, the officials allegedly involved in the corrupt payments in Nigeria worked for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The Cameroon charges are linked to public oil and gas company the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures and refinery Société Nationale de Raffinage (Sonara).
In the Ivory Coast, officials from oil companies the Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) and the Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire (Petroci) were allegedly involved. All of the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The UK prosecutor said in court filings last month it was planning to charge two more individuals in relation to the investigation who the agency said at the time were “currently outside the jurisdiction”. Perez is one of the two cited in that filing.
