Glencore says its bribery days are over. Now it has to prove it

Glencore has closed the “cash desks” in London and Switzerland that once dispensed money for bribes. Employees implicated in sweeping, cross-border corruption investigations are gone. New safeguards are in place, and boss Gary Nagle says it’s a “different company.”

Now he will have to prove it.

Glencore this week agreed to plead guilty to a web of bribery and price manipulation charges that stretch from Venezuela to Nigeria and Los Angeles in deals with the US, UK and Brazil. The penalties will total about $1.5-billion but there’s a longer-lasting requirement -- the deal with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) means Glencore will spend the next three years being scrutinized by an independent monitor.