[23] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National reported in 2005 that Glencore "has been accused of illegal dealings with rogue states: apartheid South Africa, USSR, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein", and has a "history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes".
[30] In 2011, five non-government organisations filed a complaint to the OECD against a subsidiary of Glencore over allegations that a mine it owns in Zambia may not be paying enough tax on its profits.
This complaint was due to alleged financial and accounting manipulations that had been supposedly performed by the two companies' subsidiary, Mopani Copper Mines Plc (MCM), to evade taxation in Zambia.
[31][32] A draft Grant Thornton report alleged that tax avoidance by Glencore in Zambia cost the Zambian Government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
[33] The avoidance was allegedly facilitated through transfer pricing and inflated costs at Glencore's Mopani Copper Mine, which is controlled through the British Virgin Islands, a recognised tax haven.
[36] Concerns cited by financial analysts to explain the falling stock price included a weak global commodity market and Glencore's high level of debt[37] $30 billion.
Relationships also exist with Century Aluminum Co. (CENX; 44% economic ownership interest)[38] in the US; Glencore partial subsidiary Minara Resources Ltd (AU:MRE), a 70.5% stake in one of Australia's top three nickel producers[38][39] and 8.8% in United Company Rusal (HK:486), the Russian aluminium giant that went public in 2010.
[48] In June 2012, Glencore and Xstrata began to reconsider the proposed retention package for their merger, following shareholder opposition to a huge payout for executives.
The company had earlier suspended operations at its Ravensworth underground mine following falling coal prices, escalating production costs, and a higher Australian dollar.
While traditional mining companies such as BHP and Rio Tinto have experienced a slowdown due to a lower demand for iron and copper ores by China, Glencore was able to increase its business mostly with coal, despite the dirty image this form of energy has.
The company cited the potential for enhanced cash generation and the ability to fund opportunities in transition metals as key reasons for this strategy.
Local union president Francisco Ramirez accused Cerrejón of forced expropriations and evacuations of entire villages to enable mine expansion, in complicity with Colombian authorities.
The chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, was interviewed for Panorama by John Sweeney and said 'It was impossible to remedy any way faster'[84] Glencore said the pollution started long before the company took over the refinery and that it has now ended.
[84] A reporter for The Guardian found children as young as ten years underground at the Tilwezembe mine, which the company had said in a 2008 prospectus that it had closed due to falling copper prices.
According to Global Witness, Congo's government transferred a 75% stake in Kansuki mine in secret and at vastly undervalued prices in July 2010 to a company in which Dan Gertler, who is a close friend of President Joseph Kabila, has an interest.
[92] During the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, CEO Glasenberg stated "if cobalt falls into the hands of the Chinese, yeah you won't see EVs being produced in Europe etc."
[94] In December 2018, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese battery firm GEM withdrew from its purchase contract with the commodities trader due to a price crash and oversupply of cobalt ore and recycled sources.
In November 2018, export stopped due to oversupply and uranium contamination at the Kamoto Project; the company planned to fix this with a US$25 million ion-exchange refining plant.
[102] According to a Reuters article in 2011 "[O]fficials in Zambia believe pollution from Glencore's Mopani mine is causing acid rain and health problems in an area where 5 million people live.
[a] In January 2019, a delegation from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs under the leadership of Ignazio Cassis made a controversial visit to the Mopani Copper Mines that also produce cobalt ores.
The visit was heavily criticised by Amnesty International and Swiss watchdog groups while the federal councilor defended his stance, pointing out the modernisation of production facilities, improved health care and better training for young workers.
[105][106] On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Glencore loaned $45 million to Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in exchange for his help with officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo in negotiations over a joint venture with state-owned Gécamines at the Katanga copper mine, in which one of the board members was Glencore major shareholder Telis Mistakidis.
[114] In March 2022, the company leadership strongly condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; it would "review business activities in the country including our equity stakes in En+ and Rosneft."
British news outlets, however, noted that Swiss-based Glencore, among other commodity companies, loaded cargoes of oil products onto tankers at Russian ports in mid-March 2022.
[117] On 3 July 2018, the company announced that it received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice "to produce documents and other records with respect to compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the United States money laundering statutes".
[118] In May 2018, Bloomberg reported that Britain's Serious Fraud Office may also open a bribery investigation into Glencore's dealing with Dan Gertler and DRC President Joseph Kabila.
Initially Tesla wanted to eliminate the controversial metal from its battery formula, but then the company decided for its continued use, boosting cobalt prospects significantly, according to industry experts.
These charges accused Glencore of paying over US$53 million of bribes between 2011 and 2016 to officials in Africa to "secure access to oil and make illicit profit".
[131] The SFO found that over US$25 million in bribes were paid in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan between 2011 and 2016 for preferential access to oil, and accused Glencore of "profit-driven bribery and corruption".
[133] On 6 March 2019, The Guardian Australia accused Glencore, aided by consulting firm CT Group, of engaging in a large-scale, globally coordinated lobbying campaign to promote coal use "by undermining environmental activists, influencing politicians and spreading sophisticated pro-coal messaging on social media.