By Jonathan Stempel, Luc Cohen and Chris Prentice
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global energy trader Gunvor is expected to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to violate a U.S. anti-bribery law, court filings showed on Friday.
Gunvor’s plea would wrap up a long-running U.S. government probe after the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission subpoenaed the Geneva-based company in 2020.
Gunvor’s expected plea to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was disclosed on Friday in filings for the federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to file a so-called criminal information that describes its case.
A former employee in 2021 pleaded guilty to his role in an alleged scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to win business. Reuters reported in December that Gunvor has set aside $650 million to resolve the probe, according to people familiar with the matter.
The probe is part of a multi-year push by U.S. authorities to root out fraud and misconduct in the commodities sector. Traders who buy and sell raw materials often operate in jurisdictions where corruption is common, putting them at risk of violating the FCPA, which prohibits paying bribes to foreign officials.
Foreign companies that conduct business in the United States are subject to that law.
Prosecutors said Gunvor had entered a plea agreement with the government, which will not become final until accepted by a judge. A hearing in the matter before U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano in Brooklyn is scheduled for 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT).
Freepoint Commodities last year settled similar charges with U.S. authorities. A U.S. judge previously sentenced Glencore (OTC:) to pay $700 million after the firm pleaded guilty to a decade-long bribery scheme.
A Vitol unit previously paid $135 million to resolve a DOJ and Brazil corruption investigations, and late last month, a jury found a former Vitol trader guilty of bribery.
