The Office Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has closed its criminal investigation into mining giant Glencore.  

Glencore has been held criminally liable for failing to take all necessary and reasonable organisational measures to prevent the bribery of a Congolese public official by a business partner in 2011. 

The bribery was connected to the acquisition of minority stakes in two mining companies from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) state-owned mining entity for less than their value. 

Glencore has been fined almost $2.4m (SFr2m) and ordered to pay a compensation claim in the amount of $150m in respect of the estimated benefit obtained by the business partner. 

The Swiss authorities stated that Glencore was criminally liable for failing to take all necessary reasonable and organisational measures to prevent the bribery. 

Glencore does not admit the findings of the OAG but has agreed not to appeal the summary penalty order. 

According to Glencore, the OAG’s summary penalty order did not identify that any Glencore employees had any knowledge of the bribery by the business partner, nor did the company benefit financially from the conduct of the business partner. 

A parallel investigation by the Dutch Prosecution Service has also been concluded, and the case was dismissed following the resolution of the Swiss investigation. 

Glencore chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi commented: “Over the last number of years, we have invested heavily to improve our ethics and compliance programme. We are committed to continuing to enhance the programme and are working to embed ethics and compliance in each facet of our business, no matter where in the world we operate.” 

The company has previously come under scrutiny for its relationship with Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who was sanctioned by the UK and US governments in 2017 following additional bribery accusations in the DRC.  

Glencore is the largest western mining group to operate in the DRC, which is a major producer of metals and minerals, accounting for 60% of the world’s cobalt production.