Trafigura to Pay $126 Million and Plead Guilty to Brazil Bribes
- Kris Vansanten
- Mar 27
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 18
"Trafigura Group will pay $126 million and plead guilty to US charges related to bribery in Brazil, in the latest case involving corruption by a commodity trading giant."
"Trafigura’s is the latest in a string of cases in which the world’s biggest commodity trading houses have paid large fines to resolve charges of bribing government officials for oil contracts.
The series of investigations has laid bare a shocking culture of corruption across the modern industry, which for years sought to distance itself from a reputation for bribery and wrongdoing that stretches back to the days of Marc Rich."
As we speak, justice is finally (somewhat) being done in this case, after many years of desparate attempts by the company and its lawyers and advisors to abuse the law to postpone proceedings and mislead judges. Many other cases of allegedly corruption or white collar fraud are still pending or are (not yet) discovered, but this raises hope and gives perspective for the many other victims that also deserve justice to be done in their case.
It might be a wakeup call for the many compliance officers of the legal and financial service providers working for the company to retrieve their KYC criteria from under the dust and check them against this new reality. For some, it might be a brutal wake-up after years of passive complicity.
Time will tell - also in Belgium, where some of the largest Magic Circle law firms, auditors, consultants and investment banks are raking in huge fees serving the group.
