Former Trafigura Executive Mike Wainwright condemned in the case of bribery

The highest court in Switzerland has condemned the Basic Products Commerce Giant and one of its senior bribery executives for payments made by the company to obtain access to the Lucrative Petroleum Market of Angola.

In a historical case, the court delivered the former British operations director of the Mike Wainwright company, which has also competed as a race pilot, a 32 -month prison sentence with the company $ 148 million (£ 119m).

This is the first time that a whole company has been accused by the highest court in Switzerland, and the bribery sentences of higher personnel are rare.

Trafigura lawyers said the company and Wainwright intend to appeal the verdict, so the former executive was not immediately imprisoned.

The case against the trafigura has had all the elements of a financial thriller: millions of dollars, gloomy intermediaries and a chain of Shell companies located in paradises on the high seas such as the Virgin Islands.

The trafigura strategy, according to the Court, was to establish a complex payment network, through which an official of the Angola state oil company received almost $ 5 million (£ 4.02 million; € 4.81) between 2009 and 2011.

The documents submitted to the Court by the Swiss prosecutors showed authorized payments in the nochero header of trafigura.

The strategy seemed to work: in the coming years, according to the Court, Angola signed contracts with trafigura worth almost $ 144 million (£ 115.93; € 138.56).

Trafigura, whose lawyers seemed optimistic to the verdict, denied the bribe. The company said that its own compliance and anti -corruption measures had been evaluated independently and it was found that it was excellent.

But the great weight of evidence, which included dozens of documents, emails and notes, revealed a different image: strict anti -corruption measures in paper but an intricate structure established to evade those measures actually. An intermediary called “MR does not confuse” in an anonymous office in Geneva.

The case will send a chill through basic products corridors worldwide, but especially in Geneva, where trafigura and many other commercial houses of basic products are based.

In a spooky coincidence, the night before the verdict was broadcast, a fire broke out at the five -star Berperes Hotel, where, according to judicial documents, an Angolan official remained at the expense of a trafigura in 2008.

Swiss federal prosecutors expect the case to be a symbol that the old ways of doing business have finally finished.

They brought the highest court charges of Switzerland, reserved for the worst crimes, as terrorist crimes.

Trafigura now faces a great fine and Wainwright, who was in the court for the verdict and denied the charges, told him that he had to serve at least one year of his 32 -month sentence in jail.

However, he was not arrested immediately, waiting for the appeal he intends to stay.