Switzerland's highest court has delivered a landmark ruling, convicting the global commodity trading firm Trafigura and one of its senior executives of bribery. The case centers around payments made by Trafigura to gain access to Angola's lucrative oil market, involving nearly $5 million paid to an official with Angola's state oil company between 2009 and 2011. This verdict marks the first time an entire company has been charged by Switzerland's top judicial authority, setting a precedent in the legal landscape.
The court sentenced Trafigura's former Chief Operating Officer, Mike Wainwright, to 32 months in prison and imposed a $148 million fine on the company. Wainwright must serve at least one year of his sentence behind bars. The case revealed how Trafigura orchestrated a complex payment web to sidestep anti-corruption measures, employing shady middlemen and a chain of shell companies. Despite having strict anti-corruption policies on paper, Trafigura implemented an intricate structure designed to bypass these protocols.
Documents presented by Swiss prosecutors demonstrated that payments were authorized on Trafigura's own headed notepaper, underscoring the company's direct involvement in the bribery scheme. The revelation of such practices within a major commodity trading firm has sent ripples through the industry, particularly in Geneva, where Trafigura and many other trading houses are headquartered.
Trafigura's lawyers had expressed confidence before the verdict but now face the challenge of appealing the conviction. The rarity of bribery convictions for senior staff in such high-profile cases adds to the significance of this ruling. The case against Trafigura unfolded with all the elements of a financial thriller: vast sums of money, complex networks of intermediaries, and layers of shell companies shrouding the transactions.