Energy trader Gunvor to pay over $660m to settle US bribery case

News wire -- Gunvor has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to violate a U.S. anti-bribery law and agreed to pay more than $660 million, marking the end of a long-running criminal probe into the big energy trader.

Gunvor's plea to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was accepted by U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Jean-Baptiste Leclercq, Gunvor's general counsel, told the judge that the trader conspired to violate the antibribery law by making payments to intermediaries to win business with Ecuador's national oil company Petroecuador.

Gunvor is one of the world's five largest oil traders.

Its payout includes a $374.6 million criminal fine and the forfeiture of $287.1 million, federal prosecutor Jonathan Lax said at the hearing.

The Geneva-based trader will be credited for up to $93 million in payments to both Switzerland and Ecuador, he added. Gunvor also agreed to resolve a related investigation by the Office of the

Attorney General of Switzerland, the company said.

In a statement, Gunvor Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist said his company was sorry for past mistakes, and was committed to enhancing its now "industry-leading compliance programme."

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission had been probing Gunvor since at least 2020, and a former employee in 2021 pleaded guilty over a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to win business.

Reuters reported in December that Gunvor had set aside $650 million to resolve the probe.

The investigation was part of a multi-year push by U.S. authorities to root out fraud and misconduct in the commodities sector.