Glencore’s (LON:GLEN) copper operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo will soon be the target of British regulators, which are planning to open a formal bribery investigation into the company and its deals Dan Gertler, an Israeli mining tycoon implicated in the payment of bribes to the country’s leader Joseph Kabila.
An investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office “would represent a real breakthrough in the fight to keep London-listed corporations accountable for the business they do overseas," Peter Jones from advocacy group Global Witness told Bloomberg, which broke the news. "If an investigation is launched, Glencore’s management is going to have to explain the opaque deals it struck with Gertler which cost the Congolese people over half a billion dollars in potential revenues."
Gertler, a close friend of DRC President Joseph Kabila, has denied wrongdoing, and even told the Financial Times last year that his efforts to bring billions of dollars in investment to the DRC deserved a Nobel Prize.
Instead of a trophy, he received sanctions from US regulators, who accused the billionaire of using his friendship with Kabila to corruptly build his fortune. Gertler has also been the target of previous British and American bribery investigations.
In March last year, Glencore trader paid Gertler $534 million to buy him out from their shared assets in the DRC, Katanga Mining and another jointly run Congo copper mine
A few months later, the company was being investigated by Canada's OSC regarding more than $100 million in payments Katanga Mining made to a company owned by Gertler, instead of to .
Congo's state-run mining company, Gecamines Glencore later acknowledged the shift in payments, claiming it was done at the request of Gecamines.
Shares in the company dropped about 6% following Bloomberg’s report.
More to come…
The post Glencore drops as British regulators looming probe adds to Congo issues appeared first on MINING.com.
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