Oil Traders Used State Firms as Fronts in Corrupt Ecuador Deals

Three of the world’s top commodity trading houses used state oil companies from China, Thailand, Oman and Uruguay as fronts in their corrupt deals with Ecuador, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York has heard.

Gunvor Group, Vitol Group and Trafigura Group all used the government-owned oil companies of other countries to corruptly engineer favorable deals for themselves, according to testimony over the past week in the first major trial of a commodity trader in more than a decade.

The case — in which a former Vitol trader is accused of bribing government officials to win business — has ...