Commodities
Trafigura’s Bribery Case Puts Commodity Trading Culture on Trial in Switzerland
- Founder, former COO accused of involvement in bribery scheme
- Trafigura says its anti-corruption controls were adequate
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On the first day of Trafigura Group’s trial on charges of bribery, the commodity trading giant invoked the case of Credit Suisse, which recently had its conviction overturned by a Swiss appeals court following the death of a former employee.
The trial of Trafigura is the biggest Swiss prosecution of a company since 2022, when Credit Suisse was convicted for laundering a cocaine dealer’s cash. But in a surprise decision last week, the Swiss Criminal Appeals Court ruled that in view of the banker’s death following the conviction, it was impossible “to examine the bank’s” alleged breach of law “without violating the presumption of innocence of the deceased.”