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Headlines

Trafigura and former executive found guilty of bribing Angolan official

Published by Global Banking and Finance Review

Posted on January 31, 2025

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By Emma Farge

BELLINZONA, Switzerland (Reuters) -Switzerland's top criminal court found trading house Trafigura and a former senior executive guilty of corruption on Friday in an unprecedented case over payments made to an Angolan official in exchange for oil contracts.

It ordered Trafigura to pay a fine of 3 million Swiss francs ($3.3 million) and $145.6 million in compensation, and sentenced Trafigura's former Chief Operating Officer Mike Wainwright to 32 months in prison, of which 12 must be served.

The verdict can be appealed to the same court.

The case was the first time in Switzerland that a company has been charged at its highest court with corrupting a foreign official, and a very rare instance globally of a former top executive of a trading firm landing in the dock.

Prosecutors alleged that Trafigura and others paid bribes of more than $5 million via a network of intermediaries to the Angolan official to win oil deals from 2009-2011.

Trafigura has previously said the anti-bribery and anti-corruption controls and the compliance programme in place at the time at its parent company met legal requirements and good practice standards.

Wainwright, who has also had a successful career as a racing driver, has rejected all the allegations against him.

The 51-year-old sat in court with his arms crossed as the verdict was read out.

Two other defendants, whom Reuters did not name due to restrictions under Swiss privacy rules, were also found guilty. They had denied the charges as well. They were not present.

During the trial in the southern city of Bellinzona, the court was shown dozens of pages of documents, memos, emails and messages as supporting evidence.

Some involved an ex-Trafigura employee whom the indictment says was nicknamed "Mr. Non-Compliant" by late Trafigura founder Claude Dauphin because he did things forbidden at the group.

If the sentence is appealed, it will place on hold any prison sentence pending the outcome.

($1 = 0.9093 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Emma Farge. Editing by Matthias Williams and Mark Potter)