LONDON – As many as 11 Glencore employees could be under investigation by UK prosecutors as the commodities producer and trader prepares to be sentenced for bribery across five African countries, prosecutors said.

The Glencore staff are implicated in a case summary detailing how the commodities giant paid out more than US$28 million ($40 million) in bribes, Alexandra Healy, a lawyer for Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said in a London court Monday. The investigation makes allegations of serious criminality against those individuals.

The SFO didn’t say if all 11 were under investigation.

In May, Glencore announced it expected to pay about US$1.5 billion to settle long-running investigations into bribery and price manipulation charges in deals with the US, UK and Brazil. While the US settlements have been made public, the penalty in the UK has yet to be finalised. Sentencing has been set for Nov 2 and 3.

The SFO said previously that its investigation showed the commodity trader paid for preferential access to oil, including increased cargoes, valuable grades of oil and preferable dates of delivery, between 2011 and 2016.

The SFO intends to make individual charging decision by the end of April next year, Healy said. 

Glencore declined to comment. BLOOMBERG