Swiss corruption case involving Trafigura and former executive opens

Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Trafigura and three other defendants including a former board member go on trial over the alleged payment of bribes to an Angolan oil official for oil deals in a landmark case that opens on Monday.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

It is the first time Switzerland’s top criminal court will rule on a company’s liability for the alleged bribing of a foreign official and a rare instance of a former top executive of a trading firm going in the dock.

Prosecutors allege Trafigura also did not take all reasonable measures needed to prevent payment of the equivalent of over $5 million (CHF4.4 million) in bribes in exchange for oil and shipping contracts between 2009 and 2011, according to the indictment.

Trafigura said in a statement its former parent company Trafigura Beheer BV (TBBV) will defend itself.

+ Switzerland refuses to legislate on commodities sector

“TBBV’s anti-bribery and anti-corruption controls and compliance programme in place at the relevant time have been externally reviewed and assessed to have met legal requirements and international good practice standards applicable at that time,” it said, noting it has since strengthened compliance.

The company previously said it was willing to resolve the investigation out of court, but the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) decided against a settlement. The office declined to comment.

One of the defendants is Mike Wainwright, 51, who was a top Trafigura executive until his retirement earlier this year.

At the time of the alleged crimes, he was chief operating officer, management board member, a compliance committee member and the main point of contact for Trafigura auditors, the indictment says.

“Mr Wainwright entirely rejects the allegations made against him and will be presenting a robust defence. He has full confidence the court will find the allegations to be unfounded and will dismiss the case made against him by the prosecution,” said his lawyer Daniel Kinzer.

The other two defendants are the former Angolan official and a Swiss man and ex-Trafigura employee who allegedly acted as an intermediary for the payments via a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

+ Era of bribes is over, say commodities trading chiefs

Lawyers for the two did not respond to calls and emails from Reuters. Trafigura declined to comment further.

Under Swiss law, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Trafigura faces a fine of up to CHF5 million ($5.65 million), although the Federal Criminal Court said a higher compensation penalty is possible.

Letterhead

The 150-page indictment alleges that €4.3 million euros (CHF4 million) was transferred to the Angolan official as well as $604,000 in cash between April 2009 and October 2011.

The Swiss bank account used for the payments was opened during the official’s trip to Geneva in April 2009 where Trafigura paid for his stay at the Four Seasons Hotel, it states.

Wainwright was involved in bank transfers into that account of which the Angolan official was the beneficial owner, it said. Trafigura appears in the letterhead of the document used to open the account and a signature resembling Wainwright’s appears on it, the indictment alleges.

The deals Trafigura secured as a result of the scheme allowed it to make a profit of $143.7 million, it says, citing an analysis by the OAG based on financial documents obtained during their investigations.

Swiss prosecutors also allege that Trafigura founder Claude Dauphin, who died in 2015, “must have been involved” in the decision to make payments to the Angolan. Among the evidence cited are documents showing that Dauphin invited the official to his home during the 2009 Geneva trip.

Dauphin’s family says he is being singled out unfairly and that they are being denied access to case documents by the court. The court in Bellinzona declined to comment.

The trial is scheduled to run through to December 20, with an extension into January possible.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].