The world’s biggest mining company has joined its smaller rival, Rio Tinto, in being implicated in possible corrupt activities. The implications could be severe.

In a disclosure buried in its first quarter exploration and development report, issued this morning, BHP Billiton revealed it had found what seems to amount to corrupt activities involving unnamed “government officials”. Furthermore, BHP didn’t find the claimed activities — it seems that information from the US Securities and Exchange Commission forced the mining giant to investigate its own businesses.

We have no information of what sort of activities or in which part of the world. It could be China, Africa, Asia or the US or Australia, for all we know.

Rio of course was caught up in the Stern Hu case in China last year and early this year. Now BHP seems to have been snared in a similar fashion: alleged corrupt behaviour involving down the line staff or agents, not the company — with the discovery made by the government of another country. The short BHP statement read:

“Following requests for information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a part of an investigation relating primarily to certain terminated minerals exploration projects, the Company has disclosed to relevant authorities evidence that it has uncovered regarding possible violations of applicable anti-corruption laws involving interactions with government officials.

“Accordingly, the Company is cooperating with the relevant authorities including conducting an internal investigation, which is continuing. It is not possible at this time to predict the scope or duration of the investigation or its likely outcome.”

That is an inadequate statement and the ASX and or ASIC should order BHP to provide more details as soon as possible. We have to know when the SEC first told BHP of its suspicions and when BHP told the SEC what it had found. The disclosure laws here in Australia will have to be applied to see if BHP has provided timely and adequate disclosure to the local (and London) markets.

Those two paragraphs are not good enough.

Most countries have any bribery laws, especially regarding government officials (bribes, commissions etc). The US laws are very strict and the SEC investigates offences, even when the United States is not directly involved. BHP has mostly oil producing assets in the US, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. It has US dollar issued debt and its shares are traded in the US. It is what the SEC calls a “foreign issuer” which is all the Commission needs to get involved.

This report shows the power of the SEC to investigate activities outside the US. It involves the computer and technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) which is being probed by Germany and Russia bribery claims. This article points out that cases like this do attract the attention of the SEC and then the US Justice Department..

There’s no word on whether the US Justice Department will become involved, but if it involves a breach of America’s bribery laws, it will. If the reports are confirmed then authorities in countries in Europe, especially the European Commission and China could also become involved. It could also be enough to cause the proposed iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto in the Pilbara to be blocked or collapse.

European Commission competition authorities are investigating the JV, as are their counterparts in Germany, China and Australia. The ACCC here has halted its review while more information is provided by the two companies. This disclosure by BHP should become part of it.

Having the two members of the JV accused of corrupt activity, either directly or indirectly, would probably see the whole idea blocked; the cloud of suspicion would be too much for the two companies to overcome. If the SEC has the goods, then BHP will move to settle it as quickly as it can.

But the fact that the allegations have been raised by the SEC shows the lax controls inside BHP, just as Rio Tinto has admitted to having lax processes and controls in regard to the results of the Stern Hu case. That’s a bad look for the biggest and third biggest mining companies in their world.

It’s an early test for BHP’s new chairman, Jac Nasser, who took over from Don Argus at the end of March. If the SEC’s investigations find corrupt activity, it will have occurred while Mr Argus was chairman. That also won’t be a good look.