Trafigura: The last edition of Ethical Performance (EP, March 2012, p1) reported that oil trading company Trafigura had been convicted by a Dutch court of illegally dumping toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. It also reported that the company’s joint founder Claude Dauphin had been told he was ‘personally liable’ after the Amsterdam Appeals Court rejected Trafigura’s appeal against a previous decision. We are happy to clarify that Trafigura’s conviction was actually for two violations of Dutch and EU laws concerning the management of dangerous goods and the shipment of waste in 2006, for which Trafigura was ordered to pay €1m in penalties. Though the waste was subsequently dumped by an independent contractor in the Ivory Coast, this was not included in or the subject of these proceedings. The court also cleared the way for a prosecution of Dauphin in connection with the two EU violations, the success of which will determine any personal liability in this case. Meanwhile, Trafigura denies any wrongdoing and maintains that the court’s original guilty verdict is ‘fundamentally flawed’.
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