Trafigura’s Angola case: the payments behind the oil contracts

The record

From charter contracts to offshore accounts

On 31 January 2025, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona convicted Trafigura Beheer BV and three individuals in a case concerning business with Angola’s state oil sector. Reporting identified the former Trafigura executive as Mike Wainwright and the Angolan official as Paulo Gouveia Junior. Wainwright received a 32-month sentence, with 20 months suspended. [1][2]

The court’s account follows the money between 2009 and 2011: more than €4 million in transfers, just over $600,000 in cash and minor hospitality expenses. An official facilitated eight ship-chartering contracts and a bunkering agreement. Funds moved through intermediary companies before reaching an offshore company’s Swiss account. These were findings at first instance, subject to appeal. [1]

A compliance code was not enough

For the company, the decisive question was organisational. The court found that general anti-corruption principles had not been translated into adequate controls over intermediaries and their use of money. It imposed a CHF3 million fine and a replacement claim stated as $145 million in its published release. That claim concerns proceeds, not the amount of the bribes. [1]

Some contemporaneous reporting put the latter figure at $145.6 million. This account uses the court’s published figure rather than silently treating the two as identical. Neither should be confused with cash already returned to Angola. [1][2]

The company’s position

In its December 2025 annual-results review, Trafigura confirmed that it had appealed. It said the court had acknowledged the compliance function and guidelines in place at the time, while finding them insufficient. The company stressed that the judgment was not legally binding and that the presumption of innocence continued during the appeal. [3]

The record therefore raises two separate questions: whether the convictions survive appeal, and what effective oversight of commercial intermediaries requires. The first belongs to the courts. The second is the practical issue running through the case: who checked the destination of payments before the contracts produced their returns?

Based on reporting from: Swiss Federal Criminal Court · SK.2023.49 · 31 January 2025; SWI swissinfo / Bloomberg · 31 January 2025; Trafigura · CEO annual-results review · 9 December 2025.