Glencore signed off on a deal that passed potentially lucrative mining royalties from an African state mining company to a business partner who was accused of corruption by US authorities, according to an investigation.
The arrangement will raise further questions over Glencore’s partnership with Dan Gertler in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Researchers from Global Witness, the campaign group, claimed that a contract dated last January handed a royalty worth 2.5 per cent of revenue generated by KCC copper mine to a company linked to Mr Gertler, an Israeli diamond trader and friend of the DRC’s President Kabila.
A 2012 estimate by the Glencore subsidiary that controls the mine found royalties could amount to $880 million by 2030, although mining was suspended last year