Glencore, a key supplier of cobalt to General Motors for its upcoming electric vehicles, admitted to bribery and market manipulation and said it will pay about $1.5 billion to settle U.S., U.K. and Brazilian probes that have hung over the commodities giant for years.
The settlements will help remove a question mark that has long overshadowed the trader’s business but show how far the company, founded by U.S. fugitive Marc Rich, has been willing to go in pursuit of profit. Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 and died there in 2013.
Glencore units agreed to plead guilty to a list of charges that range from bribery and corruption in South America and Africa, to price manipulation in U.S. fuel-oil markets.
“Bribery was built into the corporate culture,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a May press conference. “The tone from the top was clear: whatever it takes.”
Glencore paid more than $100 million in bribes to government officials in Brazil, Nigeria, Congo and Venezuela, he said.
Glencore first said it was being investigated by the U.S. in 2018 and details of the corruption in Africa began to emerge last year. That was well before GM signed a multiyear deal in April to supply Australian cobalt for battery cathodes to power EVs such as the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq.