UK orders Glencore to pay millions over African oil bribes

LONDON (AP) — A British court has ordered commodities company Glencore to pay more than 280 million pounds for using bribes to bolster its oil profits in five African countries. The sentence Thursday comes months after Glencore said it had reached deals with authorities in the U.S., Britain and Brazil to resolve corruption allegations. Glencore pleaded guilty in June to seven counts of bribery after an investigation launched by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office in 2019 found the Anglo-Swiss company paid bribes worth a combined $29 million to gain access to oil in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan. The Anglo-Swiss company says it cooperated with the British investigation, engaged in corporate reform and acknowledges the “inexcusable” conduct has no place at Glencore.