In the presence of Glencore co-directors, Glencore subsidiary Katanga Mining pays controversial businessman Dan Gertler, unofficial gatekeeper of the DRC’s mining industry and close friend of the then DRC president, $45m to secure a favourable mining contract with the government.1 Gertler negotiates a $445m reduction in the signing bonus, from $585m to $140m, meaning that Glencore pay just a quarter of the going rate to the state-owned mining firm Gécamines. NGO Global Witness would later bring to light many of these backroom deals, with their investigations later confirmed by revelations in the Paradise Papers in 2017, which lead to criminal investigations into Glencore [link to 2018 entry].2.3

 

1  Ben Doherty, “The inside story of Glencore’s hidden dealings in DRC,” The Guardian, November 5th, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/05/the-inside-story-of-glencore-hidden-dealings-in-drc

2  Global WItness, “Congo’s Secret Sales,” May 13, 2014, https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/oil-gas-and-mining/congo-secret-sales/

3 Public Eye, “Glencore’s murky deals in the DRC,” last accessed February 7, 2021, https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/commodities-trading/glencore-in-drc