Glencore’s billionaire ex-oil head charged with corruption

LONDON - Alex Beard, the billionaire former head of oil at Glencore, has been charged with corruption by Britain’s top fraud agency, alongside four other former employees from the commodities trader.

Beard, 56, who was one of Glencore’s top executives for more than a decade before his departure in 2019, is the highest-profile individual to be charged in a sweeping series of investigations into corruption and market manipulation at the company – and one of the most senior commodity traders ever to be charged with wrongdoing.

Britain’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.

Also facing criminal prosecution is Andy Gibson, 64, Glencore’s former head of oil operations and for years Beard’s second in command. The SFO charged him 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. 

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. Lawyers for Beard and Gibson declined to comment. Lawyers for the other men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Today’s action is an important step towards exposing overseas corruption and holding those who are responsible to account,” Mr Nick Ephgrave, director of the SFO, said on Aug 1.

Glencore in 2022 pleaded guilty to corruption and market manipulation cases in the US and Britain, admitting that it had paid bribes to win business in eight countries from Brazil to South Sudan and paying about US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) to resolve the investigations against it.

“Glencore cooperated with the SFO in its investigation into this past conduct and resolved its SFO investigation in 2022,” a Glencore spokesperson said, noting the charges. “We are committed to acting ethically and responsibly across all aspects of our business and have taken significant action towards building a best-in-class ethics and compliance programme.”

Until his departure from Glencore in 2019, Beard was part of the inner circle of former chief executive Ivan Glasenberg. After working at BP, Beard joined in 1995, becoming head of oil in 2007 and was known for his acumen trading Russian oil. When the company listed in London in 2011 he was revealed to be one of its largest shareholders with a stake worth US$2.8 billion.

After leaving Glencore he started an investment company, Adaptogen Capital, to invest in large-scale batteries connected to the British grid. He has been a major donor to Christ Church college at Oxford University and a trustee of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London. His net worth was estimated at £1.2 billion (S$2 billion) in the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

Beard’s role at Adaptogen Capital ended on July 12, according to a filing at Companies House. BLOOMBERG