Skip to main content

DOCUMENT: Charges Filed Against Former UK-based Trader In Oil Bribery Scheme Involving Nigerian Petroleum Officials

Stimler was accused by United States’ prosecutors of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money-laundering using, among other means, bank accounts in Switzerland.

A former United Kingdom-based trader for Glencore Plc, Anthony Stimler, has pleaded guilty to participating in an international scheme to bribe officials in Nigeria to win favourable contracts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

According to court documents obtained by SaharaReporters, Stimler was accused by United States’ prosecutors of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money-laundering using, among other means, bank accounts in Switzerland.

Image

Prosecutors said millions of dollars in bribes were paid to officials in Nigeria, in exchange for NNPC awarding oil contracts and providing “more lucrative grades of oil on more favorable delivery terms.”

The document reads, “Between at least in or about 2007 and in or about 2018, ANTHONY STIMLER, the defendant, and others known and unknown, agreed to pay, and in fact paid, millions of U.S. dollars in bribes through intermediaries to foreign officials in multiple countries, including Nigeria, on behalf of a commodity trading and mining company with global operations (“Company 1”), in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). In Nigeria, in exchange for the bribes, foreign officials caused the Nigerian state-owned and state-controlled oil company to award oil contracts and to provide more lucrative grades of oil on more favorable delivery terms to Company 1, two wholly-owned subsidiaries of Company 1 (“Subsidiary 1,” “Subsidiary 2,” and, collectively, the “Company 1 Subsidiaries”), and their business partners,” part of the court documents read.

“After joining the bribery scheme, which had been initiated by other employees of the Company 1 Subsidiaries, STIMLER, while acting within the scope of his employment as an employee of Subsidiary 2 and acting on behalf of Company 1, with the intent, at least in part, to benefit Company 1 and the Company 1 Subsidiaries, conspired with others to make millions of U.S. dollars in corrupt bribe payments to foreign officials in Nigeria, and elsewhere, to obtain and retain business for, and to direct business to, Company 1, the Company 1 Subsidiaries, and others. In furtherance of, and to promote the corrupt bribery scheme, STIMLER and others conspired to transmit the bribe payments from Switzerland to and through the United States, and from the United States to foreign countries.

“At all times relevant to this Information, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (“NNPC”) was a Nigerian state-owned and state-controlled oil company headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. The Nigerian government directly owned and controlled NNPC, which performed government functions. NNPC was an “instrumentality” of a foreign government, as that term is used in the FCPA, Title 15, United States Code, Section 78dd-3(f)(2)(A), and employees of NNPC were “foreign official[s],” as that term is defined in the FCPA, Title 15, United States Code, Section 78.

“At all times relevant to this Information, Company 1 was a commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Switzerland with operations and subsidiaries in various locations around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Africa, and South America.

Stimler charge sheet.pdf

“The manner and means by which ANTHONY STIMLER, the defendant, and his co-conspirators sought to accomplish the purpose of the conspiracy included, among others, using and paying inflated and fraudulent invoices submitted to Company 1 and the Company 1 Subsidiaries by intermediaries to disguise the nature and purpose of bribe payments made to government officials, which payments were made in order to obtain and retain business and to obtain business advantages for Company 1, the Company 1 Subsidiaries, and others.

“Statutory Allegations; from at least in or around 2007 up to and including in or around 2018, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ANTHONY STIMLER, the defendant, and others known and unknown, willfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States, to wit, to violate the FCPA, Title 15, United States Code, Section 78dd-3.

“It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that ANTHONY STIMLER, the defendant, and others known and unknown, would and did, while in the territory of the United States, willfully and corruptly make use of the mails and a means and instrumentality of interstate commerce and do an act in furtherance of an offer, payment, promise to pay, and authorization of the payment of money, and offer, gift, promise to give, and authorize the giving of a thing of value to a foreign official, and to a person, while knowing that all and a portion of such money and thing of value would be and had been offered, given, and promised, directly and indirectly, to a foreign official, for purposes of: (A)(i) influencing an act and decision of such foreign official in that foreign official’s official capacity; (ii) inducing such foreign official to do and omit to do an act in violation of the lawful duty of such foreign official; and (iii)securing an improper advantage; and (B) inducing such foreign official to use that foreign official’s influence with a foreign government and instrumentality thereof to affect and influence an act and decision of such government and instrumentality, in order to assist in obtaining and retaining business for and with, and directing business to, a person, in violation of Title 15, United States Code, Section 78dd-3, to wit, STIMLER and others agreed to pay and offer money and other things of value to foreign officials in Nigeria, and elsewhere, to assist STIMLER and others in obtaining and retaining business for, and directing business to, Company 1, the Company 1 Subsidiaries, and others.”

In a video testimony heard by Manhattan Federal Court, New York, on Monday, the former Glencore West Africa desk trader pleaded guilty to all the charges.

Stimler admitted to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and commit money laundering.

He was permitted to remain free in the UK on $500,000 bail.

In a statement Monday, Glencore confirmed that Stimler had been an employee.

In November 2017, NNPC sought buyers from oil traders willing to pay $3.5 to $5billion and get its value in crude oil between five and seven years. Seven companies, including Glencore, contended for the deal.

Glencore emerged as one of the oil traders selected to lift Nigeria’s crude oil under various contracts, such as the crude oil term deal and the direct sale direct purchase scheme.

In 2018, NNPC acknowledged receipt of $94.279 million, about N28.85 billion, for a total of 1.9 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil.