Glencore Bribery Case is 'Miscarriage of Justice', Says African Energy Chamber Boss

On Thursday, the British subsidiary of the multinational mining corporation Glencore was ordered to pay a fine of approximately £280Mln ($310Mln). The penalty came as the result of an investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which led to the firm pleading guilty to seven counts of bribery in Africa between 2011 and 2016.

In an interview with Sputnik, NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the South African energy legal group African Energy Chamber, expressed his discontent with the ruling by Southwark Crown Court, drawing attention to double standards in bribery cases and calling for a full accounting of those behind the corruption scheme.

"The decision is totally unfair. Glencore executives should be in jail. It is a miscarriage of justice that the Glencore executives who have engaged in illegal behavior will not face any repercussions. If it were an African company they would all be in jail in a moment," Ayuk said.

According to Ayuk, the Africans involved in Glencore's affairs are "entitled to a full accounting", which he thinks would deter them from committing any crimes in future, although the only option for those officials was "to accept their bribes” since they otherwise would have been blackmailed by the corporation.

However, those who initiated the scandalous deals have got off lightly which means that the total extent of Glencore's corruption is still unknown.

Ayuk believes that "stiff penalties" for the firm's executives would prevent similar felonies in future, so Africans should now act decisively to get justice:

"We need to open investigations against Glencore in Africa immediately. African countries need to charge them. African civil society groups should file various lawsuits and complaints against Glencore," he proposed.

Glencore, one of the world's largest commodities traders in the global energy, metal, mineral, and food trade, has a long history of international corruption. Its recent confessions of using a private jet to transport a total of $28Mln cash to be used as bribes in Africa in pursuit of lucrative oil deals has brought back memories of the decades-old case of the firm's founder Marc Rich, convicted of financial crimes and racketeering, for which he was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001.

Ayuk had highlighted the topic of Glencore's case in September. Before the court's verdict came, he warned that a fine for the corporation would be an insufficient penalty, noting that "Glencore’s corruption is about more than a company", calling for condign repercussions not only for the firm, but for executives behind its actions.

Glencore's behavior in Africa is part of a string of similar cases. Multinational behemoths Shell and Eni are currently under trial in Italy for supposed corruption surounding a 2011 oil deal in Nigeria. In 2014, a lawsuit was opened against DEFEX, a Spanish state-owned company accused of bribery and money-laundering in several countries including Angola and Cameroon. Similar allegations have been made against British American Tobacco concerning its activity in Zimbabwe.