Trafigura and former executive found guilty of bribing Angolan official

Bellinzona — Switzerland’s top criminal court convicted trading house Trafigura and a former senior executive of corruption on Friday in an unprecedented case over payments made to an Angolan official in exchange for oil contracts.

It ordered Trafigura to pay a fine of Sf3m ($3.3m) and $145.6m in compensation, and sentenced Trafigura’s former COO Mike Wainwright to 32 months in prison, of which 12 must be served.

Explaining the verdict, judge Stephan Zenger referred to “organisational failures” and said that it would have been reasonable to expect a company the size of Trafigura to more closely monitor payments to its intermediaries. “The shortcomings noted are not negligible,” he told the court.

Wainwright had indirectly profited from the bribery, Zenger said. His lawyer said he would appeal the verdict, which will place the prison sentence on hold pending the outcome.

The case was the first time in Switzerland that a company was charged at its highest court with corrupting a foreign official, and a very rare instance globally of a former top executive of a trading firm landing in the dock.

“It is a strong signal that reflects the determination of (Swiss prosecutors) to combat all forms of transnational corruption, particularly in the commodities sector,” the office of the attorney-general of Switzerland said in a statement.

The total payment, which is just shy of the $156m sought by prosecutors, is a fraction of Trafigura’s earnings, which have been boosted by an energy price rally.

Prosecutors alleged that Trafigura and others paid bribes of more than $5m via a network of intermediaries to the Angolan official to win oil deals from 2009 to 2011.

Trafigura lawyer Jean-Francois Ducrest said the Singapore-based commodities trading firm, which has major operations in Geneva, would take stock of the situation.

“It is a first step in a long judicial process,” he said.

The company said in a statement it was disappointed by the outcome and that it had invested significant resources strengthening its compliance programme over a number of years.

Wainwright, who has also had a successful career as a racing driver, has denied all the allegations against him.

“Today’s verdict lacks grounding. The court found Mr Wainwright guilty based on general assumptions and disregarded key evidence that shows he was not involved in any bribery scheme,” his lawyer Daniel Kinzer said in a statement.

The 51-year-old Briton, now retired, sat in court with his arms crossed as the verdict was read out and declined to comment afterwards.

Two other defendants, including the Angolan official, were also found guilty and sentenced to 36 months and 24 months each, with the former sentence partially suspended and the latter fully suspended.

Reuters did not name them due to restrictions under Swiss privacy rules. They had denied the charges as well and did not attend the verdict.

During the trial in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona, the court was shown dozens of pages of documents, memos, emails and messages as supporting evidence.

Some involved a former Trafigura employee whom the indictment says was nicknamed “Mr Non-Compliant” by late Trafigura founder Claude Dauphin because he did things forbidden at the group.

Dauphin’s family says he has been singled out unfairly and the family lawyer contests the importance given to the evidence for the nickname.

Reuters