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* Scope of SFO investigation is unclear
* DoJ is already investigating Glencore
* Share price down 9% to 3-year low
* Law firm plans legal action on behalf of investors
(Adds comments from sources, share price, lawsuit, dateline)
By Yadarisa Shabong, Julia Payne and Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The UK's Serious Fraud Office
(SFO) has launched a bribery investigation into Glencore
, adding to legal troubles that have hit the shares of
one of the world's biggest miners and commodity traders.
The SFO said on Thursday it had opened an investigaton into
suspicions of bribery in the conduct of business by the Glencore
group of companies, its officials, employees, agents and
associated persons in June. It declined to comment on the scope
of its inquiry.
The London-listed shares of Glencore, which has operations
in over 150 countries, fell 9% to 216.9 pence, their lowest
level in more than three years, knocking 2.6 billion pounds
($3.3 billion) off the company's market value.
Glencore, which was subpoenaed in July 2018 by the U.S.
Department of Justice over possible violations of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act relating to operations in Nigeria,
Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said it
would cooperate with the investigation.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the SFO had
recently sought information relating to Glencore's involvement
in the DRC and its former business partner, Israeli billionaire
businessman Dan Gertler.
Reuters was unable to ascertain whether those enquiries were
part of the SFO's bribery probe.
A London-based spokesman for Gertler declined to comment.
Gertler was sanctioned by the United States in 2017 over
allegations he used his friendship with former DRC President
Joseph Kabila to secure sweetheart mining deals. He denied all
allegations of impropriety at the time.
Over the course of this year, Glencore's shares have fallen
more than 20%, pressured by broader concerns about safety and
sustainability in the DRC. Canada's regulatory authorities fined
a Glencore-controlled subsidiary last year after allegations of
inadequate financial disclosures in the DRC.
The legal difficulties have upset shareholders. Boies
Schiller Flexner, a London-based law firm, said it was mounting
a fully-funded legal action on behalf of institutional investors
against Glencore for damages that could exceed 1.0 billion
pounds.
Glencore's CEO Ivan Glasenberg told investors earlier this
week he expected to step down next year once a new management
team is in place.
The investigation is one of the most high-profile SFO probes
launched under Lisa Osofsky, a former FBI lawyer appointed
director last August, who has come under fire for abandoning
some of the agency's most prominent and lengthy probes.
The SFO dropped its investigations into aero engine maker
Rolls-Royce and drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline in
February and ended a seven-year, Libor benchmark interest rate
inquiry in February.
($1 = 0.7794 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru;
Alistair Smout, Barbara Lewis and Zandi Shabalala in London;
Editing by Jane Merriman and Elaine Hardcastle)
