FRC opens investigation into Deloitte’s audits of bribery-hit Glencore
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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened an investigation into accounting giant Deloitte over eight years of its audits for the FTSE 100 mining firm Glencore, following a major bribery conviction against the commodity trader.
The FRC confirmed it is examining Deloitte’s audits of Glencore and its subsidiary, Glencore Energy UK, for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020. The probe will assess whether the auditor gave “sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations”.
The investigation comes after Glencore was ordered to pay £281 million in 2022 for seven counts of bribery following a prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The court heard how Glencore employees and agents used private jets to fly cash bribes, totalling $27m (c. £20m), to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan, using “sham” documents to conceal the payments.
The SFO’s sweeping investigation into Glencore, codenamed Operation Azoth, began in 2019 and has also resulted in charges against six former employees.
The FRC’s enforcement division will conduct the new probe into Deloitte. The decision to investigate was made by the regulator’s conduct committee in March but was only announced this week.
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