Hefty fine for bribes paid in African oil states

A British court yesterday ordered commodities company Glencore to pay more than £280 million (NZ$540 million) for using bribes to bolster its oil profits in five African countries. The order comes months after the Anglo-Swiss company announced it had reached deals with authorities in the US, Britain and Brazil to resolve corruption allegations. Glencore pleaded guilty in June to seven counts of bribery after an investigation launched by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office in 2019 found it paid bribes worth a combined US$29 million to gain access to oil in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.