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Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has charged Trafigura, the international commodity trading group, with bribing foreign officials.
In a criminal indictment filed on Wednesday, Trafigura and its former chief operating officer, Mike Wainwright, were accused by Swiss investigators of arranging about €5mn of bribes to an Angolan government official between 2009 and 2011.
In return, the official, who was also charged but was not named in the indictment, authorised eight ship chartering contracts and one bunkering contract that resulted in profits of $143.7mn for Trafigura, according to prosecutors.
Trafigura has its headquarters in the Netherlands, but conducts a significant part of its trading business through its Geneva subsidiary.
The case will be heard by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court, in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona. It is the first time criminal charges have ever been brought against a company by Switzerland for bribing foreign officials.
In a statement, the federal prosecutor alleged that Trafigura’s internal regulations and culture “[were] not in conformity with international standards on preventing and combating corruption and [were] not apt to impede the high risk of corruption associated with the Trafigura group’s activities.”
The failings went up to the “highest level” of the company, the charges claimed.
Trafigura said in a statement that the charges were linked to investigations by authorities in the US, Brazil and Switzerland, which the company had been seeking to settle.
“We sincerely regret these incidents which breached our code of conduct and are contrary to our values,” said chief executive Jeremy Weir in a statement.
Trafigura added that Wainwright, who served as chief operating officer from 2008 until this year, “rejected the charges against him and will defend himself in court.”
Wainwright, who is due to retire in March, could not immediately be reached for comment.
