Heads roll in West African graft case

Alex Beard, the billionaire former head of oil at Glencore Plc, has been charged with corruption by the UK’s top fraud agency, alongside four other ex-employees from the commodities trader. Beard, who was one of Glencore’s top executives for more than a decade before his departure in 2019, is the highest profile individual to be charged in a sweeping series of investigations into corruption and market manipulation at the company. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office accused Beard of conspiring to make corrupt payments to benefit Glencore’s oil operations in West Africa. Moneyweb reports that the agency alleges he conspired to make the payments to government officials and employees of state owned oil firms in Nigeria between 2010 and 2014, and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014. Also facing criminal prosecution is Andy Gibson, the firm’s ex-head of oil operations and for years Beard’s second in command. The SFO charged him with four conspiracies of making corrupt payments in Nigeria and Cameroon between 2007 and 2014, and Ivory Coast between 2007 and 2010. He was also alleged to have conspired to falsify invoices between 2007 and 2011.