The Anglo-Swiss company Glencore admits that it paid bribes in six African countries. Will we ever know the identity of those responsible? A look back at a resounding affair with still-present grey areas, which has tarnished the mining industry, particularly on the continent.
“I want to make sure that Glencore’s life is a living hell,” Akere Muna says from the outset. The Glencore affair is just beginning for this criminal lawyer and influential anti-corruption activist, who was briefly a candidate for the Cameroonian presidency in 2018. In any case, he intends to fight to keep it in the headlines, he tells us. And so he should. In recent months, after several years of legal investigations in the UK, the US and Brazil, the Anglo-Swiss commodities brokerage and extraction company has admitted that it bribed influential people in eight countries, including six African countries, in order to secure lucrative business deals.
The company also admits to stock market manipulation. After long denying any wrongdoing on the continent, Glencore now admits that it secretly paid more than $100m in bribes between 2007 and 2018 in Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, DRC and South Sudan.
Source: Theafricareport.com