Trafigura Ex-COO Asked Middleman to ‘Properly’ Wipe USB Keys

(Bloomberg) — Trafigura Group’s former chief operating officer said he wanted to “properly” delete information on USB sticks used by an intermediary at the center of a bribery case against the trading house, according to evidence presented by Swiss prosecutors.

“All your old USB, can you bring to office as I want to wipe properly, please otherwise use a iron key stick,” according to a text message from ex-COO Mike Wainwright that prosecutors entered as evidence on Monday at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. 

The text was sent to an intermediary dubbed “Mr. Non-Compliant” within the trading house, according to the prosecutors. “Mr. Non-Compliant,” a former Trafigura executive known as H., hasn’t been indicted in the case.

The landmark bribery trial has shone a light on how Trafigura used companies set up by former employees as intermediaries around the world. The Swiss case includes allegations of bribing an Angolan official with more than $5 million in payments and cash gifts in return for lucrative oil and shipping contracts.

Prosecutors are targeting Trafigura through a clause in the Swiss Criminal Code introduced in 2003 that allows them to indict a company if it didn’t take reasonable steps to prevent acts such as bribery or money laundering. 

Trafigura has rejected the charges and said that it’s compliance programs at the time were robust. The company’s lawyers will mount its defense later this week. Trafigura — one of the world’s biggest traders of oil and metals — announced in 2019 that it would stop using intermediaries for developing new business.

The prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail sentence for Wainwright, who retired last year. He stands accused of bribery, along with a Swiss middleman Thierry Plojoux, through whose company the alleged bribes were funneled. Angolan official, Paulo Gouveia Junior is accused of taking the bribes. 

All three men reject the charges. Under Swiss law, all defendants are considered innocent until a final judgment has been rendered.

A spokesperson for Wainwright declined to comment. His lawyers are expected to begin his defense on Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday morning.

It’s unclear from the court proceedings what was on the USB stick that Wainwright wanted to wipe. 

In other messages sent by the intermediary known as H., who prosecutors say was coordinating payments to the Angolan official Gouveia Junior, the logistics of dropping off and picking up USB drives was discussed.

H. visited Trafigura’s offices at various points, the prosecutors allege, highlighting a text message to Wainwright in January 2010: “Left an envelope in yr top drawer in the office as flying 2 Dubai this evening.” In another text from March 2011, H. said he would “come over in the next hour to collect updated USB from you.”

The prosecutors said the USB sticks that H. referenced contained information about payments — which they described as the “famous file” — made via intermediary companies. They didn’t provide further details or supporting evidence. 

The behavior of commodity traders has been in the crosshairs of global prosecutors for several years, but this month marks the first time that senior leadership of a major commodity trading house stands trial for bribery and corruption. Switzerland is home to many of the world’s biggest traders of oil, gas, metals and grains. 

‘Clandestine’ Chats

On Tuesday Gouveia Junior’s lawyer said his client’s power and influence was overstated by prosecutors. Though CEO of Sonangol Distribuidora, a unit of the larger Angolan state oil producer Sonangol, he wasn’t authorized to execute transactions worth more than $50,000, Jean-Louis Scenini said. 

“If Paulo Gouveia Junior was important, it’s because he was important to Mariano Ferraz” to be used as a tool in the latter’s bribery scheme, said the lawyer. 

Ferraz is the former Trafigura executive whose testimony underpins the Swiss indictment, but which both Trafigura and Scenini say is deeply compromised as it was given in exchange for a reduced sentence in a separate criminal case in Brazil. 

Moreover, Swiss and Brazilian prosecutors built their case using “clandestine” means of communicating including the messaging app Telegram, which was a clear violation of Swiss legal protocol, he said. 

Gouveia Junior, whose lawyer said he made as much as $150,000 a month from his real estate investments during the Angolan housing boom, “always acted in good faith and never broke the law” in Angola. 

Wrong man

Daniel Tunik, Plojoux’s lawyer, also asked for the acquittal of his client on Tuesday, arguing that the real blame lies elsewhere. “He regrets that Mariano Ferraz is not on trial as he was the architect of the bribery scheme.”

“Thierry Plojoux admits that he should have been more attentive,” but his negligence wasn’t intentional, Tunik said.

H., who also wasn’t called to testify at the trial, was repeatedly evasive in pre-trial questioning, Tunik said as he showed the court a transcript of H.’s pre-trial testimony. When H. was asked before the trial, “You’ve been shown 51 documents, can you recall one in which you were given instructions by Thierry Plojoux?” “I don’t know,” reads H.’s reply.   

Prosecutors on Monday sought a prison sentence of 54 months for Gouveia, 48 months for Wainwright, and 36 months for Plojoux, half of which would be suspended.  

The 18 months of prison time they’re seeking is “totally out of proportion” with his alleged crimes, Tunik said. 

–With assistance from Jack Farchy.

(Updates with comments from defense lawyers below ‘Clandestine Chats’ subhead)

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