The case

Trafigura Beheer B.V. (Trafigura), an international commodities trading company with its primary operations in Switzerland, pleaded guilty and will pay over $126 million to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), stemming from the company’s corrupt scheme to pay bribes to Brazilian government officials to secure business with Brazil’s state-owned and state-controlled oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (Petrobras). – According to court documents, between approximately 2003 and 2014, Trafigura and its co-conspirators paid bribes to Petrobras officials in order to obtain and retain business with Petrobras.

Source: DoJ and admin.ch; & trafigura

The commentary

In December last year, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland filed an indictment in the Federal Criminal Court against three individuals and against the commodities trading company TRAFIGURA BEHEER BV. A former Angolan public official is charged with having accepted, between April 2009 and October 2011, bribes of more than EUR 4.3 million and USD 604,000.- from the TRAFIGURA Group, in relation to its activities in the petroleum industry in Angola. In addition, a former intermediary and a former senior executive of the TRAFIGURA Group are charged with being involved in this corruption scheme. Finally, TRAFIGURA BEHEER BV is charged with failing to take all reasonable and necessary organisational measures to prevent the payment of these bribes. For the first time, the Federal Criminal Court is called upon to judge the criminal liability of a company for bribery of foreign public officials. – No judgement has been published yet.

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