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Glencore ex-oil trader Alex Beard pleads not guilty to bribery charges
Beard and his former deputy Andrew Gibson are accused in separate schemes involving alleged corrupt payments to officials in Nigeria and Cameroon, tied to Glencore’s oil operations between 2007 and 2014.
Alex Beard, the billionaire former head of oil trading at Glencore, pleaded not guilty in London to two bribery charges brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office, court reporting by the Guardian Business states.
According to the case, Beard was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to government or state owned oil company officials. The alleged conduct is tied to Nigeria between 2010 and 2014, and to Cameroon between 2007 and 2014, for the purpose of advancing Glencore’s operations in west Africa.
Beard, 59, appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday with his former deputy Andrew Gibson, who is also charged. Gibson pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy to make corrupt payments involving Nigeria, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire.
The Guardian Business reports that Gibson, 66, additionally pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to falsify documents required for an accounting purpose, while four other former Glencore traders previously entered not guilty pleas in the same case.