Former Glencore trader charged in global oil price manipulation scam
A former Glencore Plc trader was charged by U.S. authorities with conspiracy to manipulate a key oil price benchmark, the latest sign that prosecutors around the world are stepping up their scrutiny of the notoriously opaque commodity trading industry.
U.S. prosecutors alleged that Emilio Heredia, a former
Glencore employee, directed buy and sell orders that would push fuel oil prices
up and down. That allowed the companies he worked for to profit from the price
swings, between 2012 and 2016, according to a filing at a U.S. District Court
in San Francisco on March 15.
The investigation is the latest legal setback for Glencore,
already embroiled in a wide-ranging probe by the U.S. Department of Justice on
allegations of bribery and money laundering. The UK, Swiss and Brazilian
authorities are also investigating the commodity trader.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was for Heredia and his
co-conspirators to unlawfully enrich themselves,” prosecutors said in the
filing.
Glencore said Heredia was a former employee and that it’s
co-operating with authorities. A lawyer representing Heredia didn’t immediately
respond to a phone call and email requesting comment. The story was first
reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“We note that one of Chemoil’s -- and later Glencore Ltd.’s
-- former employees in the US has been charged with conspiracy to manipulate
the price of fuel oil in the LA market between 2012 and 2016,” Glencore said in
a statement Tuesday, referring to the Los Angeles fuel-oil market.
Clampdown
Authorities around the world are increasingly policing the
world of commodity trading and the companies that dominate it, while also
showing a fresh push against market manipulation.
The U.S. unit of the world’s biggest independent oil trader,
Vitol Inc., agreed to pay more than $160 million to settle allegations it
conspired to pay bribes in Latin America and attempted to manipulate energy
markets. Meanwhile trading firms including Gunvor Group Ltd. have also been
investigated.
The charge laid out how the manipulation worked. Heredia
directed co-conspirators to submit bids and offers through S&P Global
Platts, a benchmark price publisher, to artificially change the price
assessment, allowing his firm to buy cheaper fuel oil from another company.
In one 2016 example a co-conspirator, on Heredia’s orders,
lowered the benchmark price 41 times, moving down the price of bunker fuel from
$245 a metric ton to $204.50 a metric ton, resulting in hundreds of thousands
of dollars in unlawful gains for his company, the document said.
“We note charges of attempted manipulation of certain
S&P Global Platts assessments but do not believe that any such attempts
were successful and no court has ruled to the contrary,” a company spokesperson
said in an email.
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