Logo
BusinessBusiness

The Justice Department has subpoenaed commodities giant Glencore in a corruption and money-laundering investigation that spans two continents and 11 years, the company announced Tuesday.

Glencore, which runs mining and commodity trading operations, is being investigated for possibly bribing officials in Nigeria, Venezuela and the Democratic People’s Republic of Congo, the company announced Tuesday, citing a subpoena it received on July 2 in its New York office.

The DOJ asked for records related to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a bribery law, and anti-money laundering statutes, the company disclosed.

The news sent shares of the company, which trades in its headquarters city of London, tumbling by as much as 13 percent, its worst decline in more than two years when workers died in a Congolese mining accident.

In the US, Glencore shares were down 7.2 percent at 11 a.m.

“From our perspective, while it is clearly a risk factor, we stress that these types of requests are more common than perhaps the aggressive drop in the Glencore share price today suggests,” Credit Suisse analyst Samuel Catalano said in a note.

It’s unclear if the investigation is related to the mining accident in any way. A company representative didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

The company has few, if any, related businesses in the three countries — suggesting that investigators are looking at high-level executives involved in trading commodities, one person familiar with the company’s business structure told The Post.

Glencore has two mining operations in Congo, and conducts oil trading in Venezuela and Nigeria.

Company spokesman Charles Watenphul declined to comment beyond the announcement.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy