the toxic truth - Greenpeace

14 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
kEy faCTS Of ThE CaSE
23 July 2010 The Dutch court
hands down a guilty verdict
against Trafigura Beheer BV,
a London-based executive of
the company, and the captain
of the Probo Koala at the time
of the dumping. Trafigura and
the Public Prosecutor appeal
the verdict.
2011
14 April 2011 The Court
of Appeal in The Hague
decides that Trafigura will
not be prosecuted in the
Netherlands for the dumping
of the waste in Côte d’Ivoire.
7 July 2011 The Court of
Apeal in The Hague annuls
the guilty verdict of 23 July
2010 against Trafigura’s
London-based executive.
The Public Prosecutor
appeals this decision.
23 December 2011 The
Dutch Court of Appeal
upholds the €1 million fine
and guilty verdict against
Trafigura Beheer BV for failing
to disclose the harmful
character of the waste and for
illegally exporting the waste
to Côte d’Ivoire.
2012
30 January 2012 The Dutch
Court of Appeal in Amsterdam
decides that Claude Dauphin,
Trafigura’s Chairman, can be
prosecuted for illegal export of
the waste to Africa. Trafigura
appeals this decisison.
20 April 2012 The High Court
of the Netherlands rejects
Trafigura’s appeal against the
decision of the Dutch public
prosecutor to make a technical
report on the waste available
to UK lawyers acting for
victims of the waste dumping.
May 2012 Côte d’Ivoire’s
Minister of African
Integration, Adama Bictogo
is sacked by the President
over his alleged role in the
misappropriation of some of
the UK compensation money.
June 2012 The Dutch public
prosecutor decides not to
start a criminal investigation
into allegations of witness
tampering brought forward
by Greenpeace Netherlands
based on testimony of Ivorian
truck drivers. The public
prosecutor is of the opinion
that the Dutch court does not
have jurisdiction.
about traFIgura
Established in 1993 as a private
company by Claude Dauphin and
Eric de Turckheim, Trafigura is the
world’s third largest independent
oil trader. The company has 81
offices in 54 countries across the
world. 2 It handles every element
involved in the sourcing and trading
of crude oil, petroleum products,
renewable energies, metals, metal
ores, coal and concentrates for
industrial consumers. Trafigura’s
clients include BP, ConocoPhillips,
ExxonMobil, Total, Shell, Chevron. 3
Trafigura Beheer BV (TBBV) is the
group holding company, incorporated
in the Netherlands. Trafigura
Ltd. is based in London and acts
as the coordinating entity for a
substantial proportion of the
group’s oil operations, including
those relating to the dumping
incident in Côte d’Ivoire described
here. Puma Energy Côte d’Ivoire is
Trafigura’s wholly owned subsidiary
in Côte d’Ivoire. This report refers
to these three interrelated entities,
collectively, as the Trafigura Group
or Trafigura.
Trafigura operates a fleet of up to
110 vessels travelling at any given
time, carrying 6.5 million metric
tonnes of liquid and 1.25 million
metric tonnes of dry bulk cargo
each month.
In 2011 Trafigura’s turnover was
US$122 billion. 4
The company traded 110.7 million
metric tonnes of oil and petroleum
in 2011. 5
Trafigura’s annual turnover dwarfs
the gross national product of many
states. By way of comparison, in
2006, Trafigura’s turnover was
US$45 billion, 6 while Côte d’Ivoire
had a gross national product of
approximately US$18 billion. 7