Lencore was sentenced by Swiss authorities to pay a fine and compensation totaling around 152 million US dollars, concluding a four-year investigation into alleged bribery of a Congolese government official by a business partner in 2011.

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office has concluded the criminal investigation against the UK-listed commodity giant, after Glencore was fined 2 million CHF (2.4 million USD) and a compensation claim of 150 million USD was imposed. The compensation corresponds to the estimated financial benefit that the business partner gained through bribery.

The case marks the end of the last publicly known investigations into historical corruption and misconduct allegations against Glencore, which have burdened the commodity trader's investment image for years. A parallel investigation in the Netherlands was also closed on Monday.

The bribery took place in 2011 when one of Glencore's business partners allegedly paid fees to a Congolese government official to acquire minority stakes in two mining companies from the central African country's state mining company below value.

The Swiss authorities declared that Glencore is criminally liable for failing to take all necessary and appropriate organizational measures to prevent the bribery of a Congolese official by its business partner.

Glencore, however, stated that the penal order from the Swiss authorities did not indicate that any of its employees were aware of the bribery, nor that the company financially benefited from the partner's conduct. Glencore did not acknowledge the findings of the Swiss authorities but chose not to contest the penal order to settle the matter.

Glencore is pleased to have concluded these investigations into past incidents that took place over 13 years ago," said Chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi. "This concludes the last of the previously disclosed government investigations into historical misconduct.

Glencore, one of the world's largest commodity traders, transports millions of tons of metals, minerals, and oil across the globe each year. The Switzerland-based company is the largest Western mining group operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa's largest copper producer and the source of more than half of the world's cobalt.

The company's activities in the country have been scrutinized closely due to its ties with Dan Gertler, an Israeli businessman who was placed on a US sanctions list in 2017.

Glencore has always emphasized that it did not secure its entry into the DRC mining sector through dealings with Gertler, but rather that it independently acquired interests in some of the country's mines and later purchased Gertler's shares in these projects.

The termination of investigations in Switzerland and the Netherlands follows the conclusion of a series of bribery and corruption cases against Glencore and its private commodity trading rivals such as Gunvor and Trafigura. Both companies pleaded guilty to bribery earlier this year before US prosecutors. Gunvor agreed to a payment of 660 million USD in fines and disgorged profits, while Trafigura agreed to a payment of 127 million USD.

Glencore pleaded guilty to multiple bribery and market manipulation charges in 2022, following investigations by US, UK, and Brazilian authorities, and paid fines totaling over 1 billion USD.

Last week, the British Serious Fraud Office charged Glencore's billionaire ex-oil chief Alex Beard and four other former executives on suspicion of making corrupt payments to secure lucrative oil contracts.