Glencore four plead ‘not guilty’ to West Africa corruption charges
SFO case is one of the highest-profile prosecutions of commodities trading executives ever undertaken in the UK
Four former Glencore staffers have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to give corrupt payments ahead of a landmark criminal trial scheduled to take place in London in 2027.
The case brought by the Serious Fraud Office over alleged past activities involving Glencore’s London-based West Africa desk is one of the highest-profile prosecutions of commodities trading executives ever undertaken by the UK agency.
The individuals are accused of conspiring to make corrupt payments that variously benefited Glencore’s business in Nigeria, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast between 2007 and 2014.
The crown court at Southwark on Monday arraigned the former Glencore staffers on criminal charges of conspiracy to give corrupt payments. They are Martin Wakefield, 66, David Perez, 54, Ramon Labiaga, 56, and Paul Hopkirk, 51. The four pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.
Alexander Beard, Glencore’s former head of oil trading, and Andrew Gibson, its former head of oil operations, have also been charged in the same case but were not required to be present at the hearing. Beard and Gibson have not entered formal pleas to the court, though their lawyers have separately indicated that both deny the allegations and will plead not guilty.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in October 2027.
The charges come after a years-long investigation into alleged bribery at Glencore connected to its London-based West Africa desk, which sourced and traded crude oil across the continent.
The charges in the case include four counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments and one count of “conspiracy to falsify documents required for an accounting purpose”.
The latter charge, against Wakefield, Perez and Gibson, alleges that documents were falsified to generate invoices for cash to be collected in London as “service fees” due to Amazoil Ltd, a Nigerian energy company.
In 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and bribery brought by the US Department of Justice and the SFO, and agreed to pay more than $1.1bn in fines and forfeiture.
Glencore declined to comment. An SFO spokesperson said: “We continue to progress our bribery case against six former Glencore employees.”