On July 26, 2021, Anthony Stimler, a UK citizen and former trader for a subsidiary of UK-Swiss commodities trading and mining company Glencore plc, pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the criminal information, between 2007 and 2018, Stimler and others paid millions of dollars in bribes to officials at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned oil company, in order to secure lucrative oil contracts for the benefit of Glencore and two of its wholly-owned subsidiaries. The criminal information further stated that Stimler and his co-conspirators used inflated, fraudulent invoices from intermediaries to transfer bribe payments—some through bank accounts in New York—to Swiss and Cypriot accounts for the ultimate benefit of Nigerian government officials. As part of his plea agreement, Stimler agreed to forfeit the proceeds of his crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 28, 2022.
In a statement on July 26, 2021, Glencore acknowledged Stimler’s plea agreement, saying that the conduct described therein was “unacceptable” and “has no place in Glencore.” The company stated that it is continuing to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation as well as investigations by other enforcement authorities, and has taken “a number of remedial measures” to improve compliance. In April and December 2019, Glencore disclosed bribery investigations by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK Serious Fraud Office.