Two former Glencore directors pleaded not guilty to bribery charges at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday, joining four co-defendants who had previously denied similar allegations. The charges relate to corrupt payments made through Glencore’s oil operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast between 2007 and 2014.
Alex Beard, Glencore’s former head of oil, and executive Andrew Gibson appeared alongside Martin Wakefield, David Perez, Paul Hopkirk, and Ramon Labiaga. Three of the six defendants also face charges of falsifying documents for accounting purposes. All six are scheduled for trial in October 2027.
The UK Serious Fraud Office launched its investigation into Glencore in 2019, working with authorities in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. That probe uncovered approximately $28 million in bribes paid across Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan.
Glencore itself pleaded guilty in 2022 to seven counts of bribery before Southwark Crown Court, resulting in a £280 million penalty and an order to forfeit criminal proceeds. In the same year, it settled U.S. charges with the Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for $1.187 billion, and paid an additional $40 million to resolve Brazilian allegations.
It also settled claims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, paying $180 million to the government. Separately, Dutch prosecutors fined Fleurette Properties, a holding company linked to Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, €25.8 million for bribery in the DRC. The Dutch investigation ran in parallel with the Glencore case and concluded after Swiss regulators secured $152 million in fines and compensation from the mining firm.
The two firms had long-standing business ties, including royalty payments tied to DRC operations. These relationships drew scrutiny from campaigners and investigators. It now faces shareholder litigation over the scandal’s impact on its stock price, though the case is paused pending the ongoing criminal proceedings.