By Ben Deighton
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian court convicted a subsidiary of commodities trader Glencore
Glencore Grain Rotterdam, part of the world's largest diversified commodities trader, was found guilty of paying an EU official's bumper mobile phone bills and laying on a French holiday to secure information about grain subsidies.
"The holiday offered by Glencore Grain Rotterdam to Karel Brus in south of France in June 2003 was in relation to the obtaining of secret information," Judge Pierre Hendrickx told the court before fining the unit 500,000 euros ($623,600).
The court also convicted the EU official and some other companies and individuals, including a French agricultural cooperative, accused of providing or facilitating bribes.
The case centered on Brus, a former EU agriculture department official, who was accused of passing confidential information about EU export subsidy applications in 2002 and 2003. Brus was sentenced to 40 months in jail.
The companies received confidential information that allowed them to put in favorable bids in tenders for European export subsidies.
Glencore declined immediate comment.
(Reporting by Ben Deighton; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Anthony Barker)
