The 2019 decision that penalized Gunvor included nearly 90 million francs — a sum said to be close to the amount of profits the company had earned from the bribery operations in the African country — as well as 4 million francs in fines, 1 million below the maximum allowed in such cases under Swiss law.
Gunvor was co-founded by Swedish oil magnate Torbjörn Törnqvist, its current chairman, and Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is no longer affiliated with it. The company website says Timchenko’s shares, in anticipation of “potential economic sanctions” were sold to Törnqvist in March 2014 — weeks after Russian-backed separatists launched war in Ukraine. The next day, theGunvor has since stopped its operations in the Republic of Congo, and said it has improved its compliance programs.
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