Alex Beard, the billionaire former head of oil at Glencore Plc, was charged by the UK’s top fraud agency, with four conspiracies of making corrupt payments in Nigeria and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014, and Ivory Coast between 2007 and 2010.
He was also alleged to have conspired to falsify invoices between 2007 and 2011.
He was charged alongside four other ex-employees from the commodities trader.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) accused Beard of conspiring to make corrupt payments to benefit Glencore’s oil operations in West Africa.
The agency alleges he conspired to make the payments to government officials and employees of state owned oil firms in Nigeria between 2010 and 2014, and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014.
Beard, 56, was one of Glencore’s top executives for more than a decade before his departure in 2019.
Also facing criminal prosecution is Andy Gibson, 64, Glencore’s ex-head of oil operations and for years Beard’s second in command. The SFO charged him
Additionally, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga and Martin Wakefield, former Glencore employees involved in trading West African oil, stand accused of conspiring to make corrupt payments to government officials and employees at state owned oil companies in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon.
Wakefield is separately charged with one conspiracy to falsify documents between 2007 and 2011.
All the men are scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Sept. 10.
“Today’s action is an important step toward exposing overseas corruption and holding those who are responsible to account,” Nick Ephgrave, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said Thursday.
Glencore in 2022 pleaded guilty to corruption and market manipulation cases in the US and UK, admitting that it had paid bribes to win business in eight countries from Brazil to South Sudan and paying about $1.5 billion to resolve the investigations against it.
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