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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2011
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