Corporate misbehaviour, aggregated

The G4S Olympic fiasco got me thinking about the general question of corporate failure and wrongdoing.
I tweeted a few off the top of my head, as follows -

G4S, Barclays, BP, Enron, Lehman Bros, Trafigura, Union Carbide, Dow. Who have I left out? ‪#corporatefail‬

 - and with the help of the excellent tweeps Zahra, Mike, Joel Benjamin, Guy Lambert, Sue and Mike Parker we rapidly assembled a decent list of corporate miscreants who have cocked up or ripped off in one way or another.

It falls to me to render them in some kind of order, with a brief note of what it was they did wrong. So here goes:

Government sub-contractors

1. G4S. Currently in pole position on the grid, for its self-confessed "humiliating shambles" in failing to fulfil its contract in providing security for the London Olympics.
2. A4E fraud in Government contract
   
   Undue influence over Police and Politicians
3. News International, Rupert Murdoch's outfit
   
   Banks and financial dealers
4. Standard Chartered, currently (7Aug2012) accused of laundering $250million to break Iran sanctions.
5. HSBC again in the news at number 2, for providing only-too-efficient money laundering services to drug barons. I'm told this is continuing their corporate tradition, because the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank was the bank of choice for the British Opium Trade.
6. Barclays lies a close third, for its rigging of the Libor inter-bank lending rate - an act that undermines trust in the banking system itself.
7. Staying with  the banks, let us put Northern Rock in next, for their excessively clever securitisation scheme which borrowed money, lent it for mortgages, sold the mortgages on until they crashed, setting off the first UK bank run in 150 years. We should not forget that while they were begging for taxpayers' money, Northern Rock also had billions in a separate Jersey account, which, naturally, they were unable to share with the despised taxpayers.
8. There is insufficient space here to recap on the various scrapes that NatWest has been through.
9. RBS crashed in the credit crunch, successfully obtaining £1.1 billion from the people. In consideration of this success in hetting this undeserved handout, the RBS executives awarded themselves a bonus of £1 billion. Trebles all round! 
   
   There now follows a list of names of other corps who need to be named and shamed. Since I am on holiday in France with shortened online time, I am just going to list the bastards, and add short details of their sins in coming days. Or indeed you can look them up on the Wikipedia.
10. Equitable Life  big cock-up in which thousands of clients lost large amounts of money.
11. Enron hid billions of debt. Shareholders lost $11bn.
12. Lehman collapsed through false accounting and the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
13. J P Morgan Chase - multiple failings
14. BCCI - mismanaged, money laundering.
15. Goldman Sachs
    
16. Jarvis - Railtrack sub-contractor responsible for 7 deaths due to substandard points maintenance
17. Farepak folded Oct 2006, leaving thousands of savers out of pocket
    
    Polluters
18. BP 
19. Shell in Nigeria - pollution, collusion with state murder of Ken Saro Wiwa
20. Trafigura
21. Exxon (Valdez)
22. Union Carbide/Dow - Bhopal
    
    Tax Avoiders
23. Vodafone
24. Amazon
    
    Miscellaneous
25. Blackwater
26. GSK
27. Bayer
28. Dupont
29. Monsanto
30. Distillers, Diageo - thalidomide
31. Nestle - selling baby milk powder to poor people
32. Anderson Consulting
33. Polly Peck
34. Southern Cross
35. Occidental Petroleum - Piper Alpha
36. CSC
37. EDS
38. McDonalds (because - see comments)
39. Starbucks
40. Rio Tinto (slave labour)
41. Asia Pulp and Paper a.k.a. Sinar Mas for chopping down the rainforest. And anyone who does business with them.
42. Koch Industries for polluting and suborning democracy
    
    People
    This list overlaps somewhat with the above, but we should remember some special individuals

1. Rupert Murdoch
2. Bob Maxwell
3. Conrad "Lord" Black
4. Sylvio Berlusconi

Feel free to ad any suggestions in comments. I will add well-chosen comments to this post. There are many other historic events. There are also other cases which have not yet reached the light of day.

The importance of all this is to demolish the simplistic meme that is running at the moment -
"Private good, Public Bad" The fact is that error exists both in the public and private spheres, and a mature democracy and economy has room for both.

Last but not least, look here for a set of proposals on how to bring the mega-corporations under control.

Trafigura, Probo koala, Toxic dump - now cheated?

Trafigura paid millions to the Cote d'Ivoire victims of its dump of toxic waste from the Probo Koala. Recently a court gave the money to one Mr Gohourou.

Leigh Day solicitors believe that he will not pass it on to the victims.

This view is confirmed by Mavin Ouattara, of a local victim's group (website here), who has sent me an email with photos of documents (in French) which he says prove that Gohourou is an impostor.

If anyone is interested enough to send me an email (you can find my email on my website), I will forward them to you.

Meanwhile, the appearance is that the Africans have been first poisoned, now cheated.

Sometimes I feel ashamed to be a human.

It was this episode that pushed me to call the conference of NGOs yesterday, to outline the laws necessary to constrain mega-corporations. I am working on the document, and hopefully will put it here today or tomorrow.

Trafigura Cote d'Ivoire dump illegal in EU Law

Note: all references to Trafigura's actions in this post are to be taken as "alleged".

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP, wrote last November to Mr Dimas, the European Environment Commissioner:

In 2006, Trafigura illegally dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast in August 2006. The toxic waste caused health and environmental havoc among the population.
Exporting waste from the EU for disposal is illegal pursuant to Article 34 of the waste shipment regulation, and exporting hazardous waste to non-OECD countries for recovery is illegal pursuant to Article 36 of that regulation.
In 2006, Commissioner Dimas acknowledged that 'Such highly toxic waste should have never left the European Union. European and international laws were broken.'

Commissioner Dimas also pledged to 'seek ways and means to reinforce the existing waste shipment regulation and its implementation by the Member States. I also plan to put forward a proposal to criminalise certain environmentally damaging practices such as the one perpetrated.'

What progress, three years after the incident, has been made on the following:
- What measures have been taken to monitor how Member States have been applying this regulation?
- Does the Commission consider that all Member States fully enforce the waste shipment regulation? If not, what action has the Commission undertaken or what action will it undertake to ensure this?
- What recommendations/proposals have come out of this monitoring process, and how will they inform future changes to the regulation?
- What steps have been made to criminalise certain environmental damaging practices, such as the one perpetrated by Trafigura?
- What other measures have the Commission put in place to ensure that such a horrific incident can never happen again?

Commissioner Dimas has now replied:

21 December 2009
P-5641/2009
Answer given by Mr Dimas on behalf of the Commission

Following the specific incident in Cote d'Ivoire, the Commission has underlined the importance of preventing any such illegal waste shipments to developing countries. Proper implementation of EU environmental legislation is a priority of the Commission's environment policy and the enforcement of the export bans in the EU Waste Shipment Regulation is of key importance.

Member States are obliged to take the necessary measures to ensure that the Waste Shipment Regulation is complied with in practice and ensure that in case of violation the responsible parties are held accountable. As there are still gaps in the proper implementation and enforcement of the EU Waste Shipment Regulation, the problem of illegal waste shipments is not completely resolved. To assist Member States in better implementing and enforcing of the regulation, the Commission has undertaken a number of actions to strengthen the enforcement in Member States.

Recognising the need for better quality and higher frequency of inspections, the Commission has:
— held a study on inspection requirements for waste shipments and will soon proceed with an impact assessment to evaluate the various impacts of a number of criteria and requirements for inspections, controls and spot-checks. This will be a step that could lead the work towards the establishment of legislative criteria for waste shipments;
— supported the coordinated enforcement actions of IMPEL-TFS in their aim to develop a greater consistency of approach in the implementation, application and enforcement of the EU Waste Shipment Regulation.

Moreover, the Commission is currently holding a study on the feasibility of establishing a ‘Waste Implementation Agency’ which would assist in the direct monitoring of inspections on inter alia waste shipments.

The Commission recognises the need to focus on certain waste streams that are particularly problematic for Africa, such as WEEE and ELVs. The recently proposed recast of the WEEE Directive includes additional rules to avoid illegal shipments of e-waste, especially when this is falsely declared as used electrical and electronic equipment. The Commission is currenly working on a guidance on ELVs while it strives to ensure that other waste streams (e.g. mixtures of non-hazardous waste) are uniformly classified throughout the EU.

Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law includes as criminal offence the unlawful fault-based illegal shipment of waste pursuant to Article 2(35) of the Waste Shipment Regulation.
Member States have to take the necessary measures up to 26 December 2010 to ensure that such illegal shipment of waste is punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties.

Pertaining to the involvement of Trafigura in the particular incident in Cote d'Ivoire, there are currently legal proceedings underway in the Netherlands to which the Commission has no direct access.
While according to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union the Commission does not have the power to criminalise individual operators, it does not hesitate whenever necessary to use the mechanisms available under the Treaty to ensure that EU legislation is properly applied.
Article 260 TFEU provides the possibility for the Court of Justice to impose penalty payments or a lump sum when Member States fail to respect the Court's judgments. The Commission may bring such cases to the Court which determines the specific amount of fines.

So there we have it. Under EU Law, the transfer of waste from Europe to Africa was illegal, and there is a potential for the EU to take court action over the Cote d'Ivoire incident.

I believe that the Netherlands action referred to is an action brought by Greenpeace.

M'learned friends will be studying this text, and working out what to do next.

Newsnight Trafigura footage is dead. Long live the footage!

BBC Newsnight have been forced to take their footage of the Trafigura toxic waste dump off the BBC website, presumably in an effort to halt Trafigura's law suit against Newsnight.

So all right-minded bloggers are putting the vid up on their blogs. What you have to do is Right click on the vid, click Watch on YouTube, and copy and paste the embed code.

The Minton report can be viewed here.

Here is the story in brief.

Trafigura's dump - illness covered up - video

Trafigura is suing Newsnight for quoting Hansard.

This is a multifactorial issue which includes

• The excessive power of multinaitonal corporations
• draconian English libel laws
• disregard for peoples' health
  
• Disregard for the environment

Here is a blog about the demonstration today outside Trafigura's offices.

Global Warming in 133 words

I've just posted a comment on the Daily Mail article on the EAU email hack.


"The emails show the scientists are fallible humans, but there is nothing in them to affect the facts, which are (1) that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, (2) that it has increased significantly since the Industrial Revolution to a level that has not been seen for many thousands of years, and that (3) the planet has been warming for the last 150 years.

There is a theory that certain banks and politicians are conspiring to get rich by selling carbon credits, and have somehow persuaded the community to create a false theory that will boost their profits. It is a conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories.

Even if CO2 were not a greenhouse gas, decarbonisation would still be a safe bet, because of acid rain, acid sea, energy security and Peak Oil".

[Update 3/12/09:Denialists often maintain that these changes are just a symptom of natural climate variability. But when climate modellers test this assertion by running their simulations with greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide held fixed, the results bear little resemblance to the observed warming.]

Cumbrian floods: Global Warming?

Extreme weather events, of which Cumbria is one example, are consistent with AGW theory.

That is the tried and trusted phrase that a medical witnesses use in court. "The injuries seen are consistent with attack by a blunt instrument". That is the evidence. It is up to the judge and jury to decide whether the blood stained pick handle is the blunt instrument in question.

A good question is: are extreme weather events increasing?
See above. Seem to be.

Those in denial will quibble about the data, whether it reflects real or apparent increase. These quibbles can be carried on ad infinitum, and this is what they are trying to do, to hold up economic transformation which may damage the profits of fine upstanding companies like Trafigura and Exxon Mobil.

Trafigura flashmob November 26th

Just stumbled upon this extremely fine blog - middle class mayhem.

Sly and Reggie have a song Trafigura, call off your dogs.

Well worth a listen.

I really ought to get up to London to join the flashmob on

Thursday November 26 2009
outside the offices of Trafigura,
2 Portman St W1 6DU at 1pm

Trafigura borrows $700,000,000; Sell! Sell!

We read here that "Trafigura has closed its latest syndicated revolving credit facility oversubscribed, raising $700m against an initial target of $505m as a result of strong support from institutions in Asia, according to the company.

The facility will refinance an existing one-year credit facility that closed in November 2008 at $200m. It has a tenor of 364 days, with two one-year extension options. It follows on from a $520m syndicated revolving credit facility of March 2009, which was mainly raised with European banks".

Wikipedia "Revolving credit is a type of credit that does not have a fixed number of payments, in contrast to installment credit. Examples of revolving credits used by consumers include credit cards. Corporate revolving credit facilities are typically used to provide liquidity for a company's day-to-day operations".

Syndicated just means a group of financiers.

What does this mean? I have not the faintest idea. All I do know is that Trafigura has had to fork out $198,000,000 for the clean up, and $ 50 000000 to the Abdjan victims' fund, which adds up to £248 million altogether. Let's round it up to $250 million to account for Messers Carter-Ruck's fees. Then they need to set aside a few millions in the event that the present Norwegian police investigation into the explosion of toxic waste leads eventually to the door of the courtroom. And then there is the murder charge brrought against Trafigura in Dutch courts by Greenpeace Netherlands.

Trafigura annual profit in 2008 = $440 million. So the Probo Koala lost them over half a year's profit.

36% of the money they have borrowed is going to go towards paying for the Probo Koala incident. Say 35%, because they did manage to sell the oil products for a profit of $19 million.

So it's not all bad for Trafigura.

But my advice, given free of charge, to all potential investors, is still "Sell Trafigura".

Trafigura suppresses scientific lecture. Allegedly

The Nederlands Foresnic Institute (NFI) did some work on the Trafigura Probo Koala toxic waste dump in Abidjan 2006. In Beirut, March 17-18, 2009 the director of NFI gave a presentation about environmental crime at a UNDP-POGAR conference in Beirut, and gave Trafigura's action as an example of such a crime.

According to this (francophone) site , record of his presentation was removed from the conference site. The NFI man, whose name, it has to be said, is Perry C Quak, is indeed on the conference programme, but his presentation does not appear on the list of conference documents.

This site has a copy of the NFI power point presentation (as .pdf). If it gets taken down, I have a copy on my machine.

Relevant slide

Hundreds of tons of highly toxic waste…
… and the consequences:
- 17 dead
- 26,000 injured
- huge damage
to environment

“Probo Koala”
Judicial consequences, 2 years later:
– Ivorian CEO: 20 years of imprisonment
– Ivorian advisor: 5 years of imprisonment
– Dutch transporters: 152,000,000 dollar fine
And why did the offenders do it?
– high profits: unlawful dumping of toxic waste saves a lot of money

He is calling for a specialised Functional Public Prosecutor's office to deal with environmental crime.

If it is true that Trafigura forced a UNDP conference to delete reference to this presentation, it shows how desperate they are to expunge any reference to their actions.

Goebbels would have been impressed.

Letter to MEPs about Trafigura and the Probo Koala incident

Apologies. This is a very long post. It reviews the case of Trafigura, a dump of toxic waste in the Cote d'Ivoire, and is raising the question of changes in European law affecting toxic waste.

Activists from the South West Green Party have been writing to the Members of the European Parliament elected in June of this year. They are asking them to press the European Commission to look into possible prosecution of international oil company for breaking European laws in dumping toxic waste in Africa, which was followed by widespread illness in Abidjan. This illness was clearly more serious than a short bout of influenza-like illness.

The company, Trafigura, made national front page news recently when they attempted to prevent the Guardian newspaper from reporting an MPs question about the affair. The super-injunction by the libel lawyers, Carter-Ruck, blew up in their faces in a spectacular way when Twitter, the internet messaging service, publicised the forbidden information.

(The text of the letter that will be sent, setting out the background information, is printed at the foot of this blog entry).


The aim of this campaign is to bring people pressure to bear on the people elected to be our voice in Europe.

The European Parliament has a pretty low public profile between elections.

The Green Party intends systematically to lobby the MEPs that had the good fortune to successful in June.

MEPs are handomely rewarded, so it is right that we should make them earn their salaries by doing what they are supposed to - represent the best interests of the people . This Trafigura issue is very important, because it appears that a European law was broken, and the health of many people was affected. Dr Lawson is trying to find out how many people are still getting symptoms.

So far Trafigura has reacted by firing off injunctions in a multiplicity of directions, trying to gag media sources as far afield as Norway, where they are currently under investigation by Norwegian police for alleged illegal import of toxic waste. Their efforts to hide information about the incident has been overcome by the power of thousands of people using Twitter".

Dr Lawson, who was one of the Green Party's candidates in the Euro-election, has also been asked by the Campaigns Department of the Green Party to convene a conference of NGOs to draft laws designed to restrict and regulate the power of Trans-National Corporations. In particular, they will be called to account in an orderly, legal way for any damage their operations may cause to health, wealth, or environment.

____________________________________________________________________

South West MEPs emails:
giles@gileschichestermep.org.uk
trevor.colman@btconnect.com
euro_office@cix.co.uk
julie@juliegirling.com
ukswcoord@aol.com
ashley.fox@europarl.europa.eu

______________________________________________________________


Letter to MEPs

[date]
Dear xxxx

As you know, in 2006 the oil company Trafigura dumped 500 tonnes of toxic waste from the Probo Koala in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa, which was followed by a wave of illness affecting many in the city. Trafigura has been assertively trying to quash all debate over this matter, culminating in the imposition of a super-injunction on the Guardian to stop it reporting on a question in Parliament. The question related to an internal Trafigura report detailing the possible serious health consequences of the toxic dump.

You will recall that the injunction failed in a spectacular way due to people-power mediated by Twitter.

In 2006, Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the environment, made a tough speech in Estonia (where the Probo Koala was docked) about the Abidjan affair, stating that European Law (Article 26 REGULATION (EC) No 1013/2006) had been broken by Trafigura, and undertaking to tighten the regulations to prevent a repeat of such dumping.

Would you very kindly find out whether he has followed up on this promise?

As your constituent, I would be most grateful if you would ask the Environment Commissioner whether he believes that European Law governing toxic waste should be revised to prevent a repeat of the Probo Koala incident.

I would also appreciate your assurances that you take a serious view of the action of Trafigura in this matter, and whether you are satisfied that Trans-National Corperations are sufficiently regulated by national and international law.

Many thanks for your help with this important matter

Sincerely,

Richard Lawson.
[update 5/11/09: Caroline Lucas MEP writes to Environment Commissioner enquiring about legal action]
[update 28.1.10: still no response from the MEPs. Useless]

Norwegians sue Trafigura for waste explosion

This is a Google Translation of a report from our Norwegian friends , Synnove Bakke September this year, NRK hold of internal e-mails and reports from Trafigura. Of the documents shows that oil dealer knew that the waste was toxic and could result in death. In addition, the e-mails that Trafigura was aware that it was illegal to cleaning gasoline product in the whole EU area. Chairman of the West Tank, Trond Emblem, says to NRK that they never received information about this. - If we had known this had we never entered into an agreement with the company, "said Emblem. Vest Tank has always claimed that they believed that the waste they received was ordinary Slope waste, and that it was not hazardous waste. In direct contact with Trafigura said Vest Tank specifically about this and was told that this was not waste requiring special permits. Of Trafigura's internal e-mails, it appears that this was not the case. Trafigura discusses internal waste caustic, toxic waste that requires special permissions. Western Tank is by the NRK knows not set a specific amount in lawsuit against Trafigura. But after that NRK will experience such a claim amount to a major in the millions. Trafigura Norwegian lawyer confirms that they have received the writ, but rejects lawsuit that reason resolved. Beyond that, they have no further comment to NRK. Criminal case that Økokrim has targeted Western Tank starts in Nordhordland District Court 2 November.

Trafigura broke European Law

I have received some information from the highly efficient Caroline Lucas, Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Green Party here.


First, Environment Commissioner Dimas was in Estonia in 2006 to look at the Probo Koala, the ship that dumped toxic waste in Abidjan. The ship had been prevented from leaving port by Greenpeace.

He made a very forthright statement on 28 September 2006:

My visit here was unfortunately precipitated by a series of tragic events, most notably on the Ivory Coast where an illegal shipment of European toxic waste caused health and environmental havoc among the population. Such highly toxic waste should have never left the European Union. European and international laws were broken. There is no excuse for it. What happened was not only unethical in the most profound sense of the word, but it was criminal. What is more, I fear that the Probo Koala incident is only the tip of the iceberg. And so I decided to come here; You can call it a fact finding mission, but is more than that.
First and foremost, I want give my full support to the efforts of the Estonian authorities in their quest to prosecute the criminals who perpetrated this crime.
Secondly, I want to raise awareness about the practices of illegal shipping of toxic waste. European governments need to be more aware of what is happening in their harbours and on their ships. And what needs to be done to prevent another such disaster. And when I return to Brussels, I will seek ways and means to reinforce the existing waste shipment regulation and its implementation by the Member States.I also plan to put forward a proposal to criminalise certain environmentally damaging practices such as the one perpetrated. I am looking forward to discussing these issues at the next environmental council and hope for support of my initiatives also from the European Council. Finally, let me extend my thanks to Greenpeace which took a decisive step by preventing the departure of the Probo Koala.

The Greens in the European Parliament are going to find what emerged from Commissioner Dimas' undertakings.

A report on the European environmental news and information service (ENDS) reinforces his intentions:

The commissioner said he would now "seek ways and means to reinforce the existing waste shipment regulation and its implementation by the Member States." A new version of the regulation will enter force next year following a lengthy revision process that ended earlier this year. The commission will first see how member states implement it and then "propose further changes if necessary".

"I also plan to put forward a proposal to criminalise certain environmentally damaging practices such as the one perpetrated," Mr Dimas said. This could result in the retabling of a commission proposal for minimum EU standards for punishing environmental crimes. Last year the commission won a court case against EU member states over its right to make proposals in the field (EED 13/09/06). "If there is a case that shows it’s necessary, this is it," Mr Dimas’s spokeswoman said.

The waste was undoubtedly toxic, and exporting toxic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries is illegal pursuant to Art. 36 of the waste shipment regulation:
Article (36) : Efficient international cooperation regarding control of shipments of waste is instrumental in ensuring that shipments of hazardous waste are controlled. Information
exchange, shared responsibility and cooperative efforts between the Community and its Member States and third countries should be promoted with a view to ensuring
sound management of waste.

Trafigura is trying to avoid the waste charge by defining the discharge as "slops" but it is most definitely waste products from the processing of coker naphtha at sea.

If the Commissioner has let the trail go cold, this is an opportunity for us to get writing to our MEPs to make them earn their allowances.

The Trans-National Corporations can and must br brought under the rule of Law.

Trafigura's defence case has no scientific status until evidence is published.

Trafigura have put up their position on the Minton Report on the toxicity of the Abidjan pollution.
Their position is that " Trafigura’s long-maintained position that the Probo Koala’s slops simply could not have caused deaths, miscarriages, stillbirths, birth defects or other serious or long-term injuries. This followed thorough analysis by 20 independent experts in what has been by far the most detailed consideration of these matters anywhere in the world, since the Probo Koala incident in August 2006."

"Mr Justice MacDuff confirmed that: "I know from my own reading of the [court] papers that the experts were quite clear that the slops could not give rise to the sort of symptoms and illness which were being claimed in some of the press. I hope that the media will take account of the Joint Statement and will put it right, and put things in perspective. I need say no more except to underline that from where I sit and from what I have seen of the [court] papers, the Joint Statement is 100% truthful.”

However, the evidence seen by the court has no status in science, because it is not in the public domain, which is one of the criteria for science. Karl Popper, the doyenne of scientific philosophy, established that the key to science is falsifiability.

To establish a causal link between an environmental toxin and associated illnesses is a time-consuming process. The Bradford Hill criteria are used, but even these cannot provide conclusive "proof", they can only permit a reasonable induction of causality.

Martyn Day, the solicitor who acted for those affected by Trafigura's dump of toxins around an African town, has confirmed to me in a personal message that Trafigura will not release the evidence from their 20 scientific experts. The scientific community is unable to review and therefore criticise the falsifiability of the evidence. Therefore they are not scientific in any real sense of the word.

Time for NGOs to act against the TransNational Corporations

The canses of Trafigura and now Monterrico Metals, a British mining company alleged to be complicit in torture of protesters in Peru, highlights the need to bring Trans-National Corporations back under the rule of law.

This is not a new campaign, of course. We have known for ages that TNCs are more wealthy and powerful than many countries, and that their donations to political parties effectively overrides the commitment of those parties to the welfare of the people that elected them.

What is different is that the victory of social media over Trafigura/Carter-Ruck, associated with popular revulsion at the arrogance of said companies, may trigger a wave of popular action against them. The key to victory lies in forging an alliance of all the NGOs who are affected by this issue - and that consists of most of the major NGOs, who can mobilise hundreds and thousands of supporters.

One of the common responses I hear when canvassing disaffected voters is this: "You're wasting your time. It's all down to vested interests, politicians carry out their orders". The people know at gut level that "big business" can buy off politicians. Unfortunately, but also understandably, this makes them give up on politics. If this huge untapped resource could be brought into line again by a new campaign to reform the TNCs and bring them under the rule of law, we could see success.

We need a conference of the major NGOs to draft up legislation to bring the TNCs under the rule of law.

Here is a set of headlines that I made earlier:

1. *Simultaneous Policy*
This is a powerful lever in bringing about international
agreement. There is a distinction to be made between the idea of
SP itself, and the pretensions of the ISPO, which is trying to
re-invent the MfSS.
2. *English Libel Law Reform:* plaintiff to prove Malicious
Falsehood. Defendant to be granted power to write simple letter
claiming no merit in the accusation, at low charge to defendant.
3. *Corporate Personhood: *
i Work in the Council of Europe to revise the European Convention
on Human Rights in order to make it clear that it only applies to
human beings (it has been applied to Corporations in the UK).
ii Change English law to rule invalid future reliance on any
precedent set by assuming that Corporations are persons.
iii Amend UK law to prevent courts in the UK from enforcing
judgements in US courts which rely on corporations being granted
'Human Rights'. Note that some US states have passed laws to
protect Americans from English libel law judgements.
4. *TNCs*
*i Establish in law thePrinciple that Human Rights (HR) are
superior to rights and interests of Private Corporations
ii Abolish Limited Liability, so makeing shareholders liable to
pay for malpractice in the company that they have invested in.
iii States will guarantee that HR will be applied by TNCs to same
standards in third countries as in their base country.
iv Global Compact to make CSR legally binding, not voluntary, so
that company regulations should prohibit them from participating
in or funding projects with negative effects on environment or HR.
v The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to report to the UN General
Assembly with a proposal to set up a International Tribunal2 to judge
economic and environmental crimes, to which individual and
collective victims can turn as legitimate plaintiffs.
5. Companies to be made legally responsible for the actions of sub-contractors.
6. [space for additions]


This is clearly an ambitious project, but at this level it is a document drafting procedure, which the GP is well-used to. The power for its implementation
will come from a coalition of NGOs.

Elegant symmetry in Legal/Executive tussles

There is an elegant symmetry in the two current tussles betleen the judiciary and the executive.

The legal profession in the ugly form of Carter-Ruck* have failed to gag Parliament from mentioning the Minton Report.

Government has been prevented by a High Court judgment for trying to withhold information about Binyam Mohammed's torture.

Bit of a Tweedledum and Tweedledee situation, except that it is all so serious. In both cases, there is an attempt to hide evidence of wrongdoing.

The Minton Report reveals that expert opinion commissioned by Trafigura warned them that their toxic sludge was capable of causing widespread illness and death, and contravened European Council Directive 1999/31.

The Government is going to appeal against the high Court decision, because the US State Department is going to be cross with them, so cross indeed that it is prepared to cut off its own nose by refusing to share information with us. Oo-er.

The UK has the most savage libel laws, and our Freedom of Information Act was dragged out of a reluctant Government with the utmost difficulty.

Transparency is one of the core characteristics of true democracy. The opposition of the ruling elites in Britain is a worrying symptom of a poor grasp of what democracy is about, and this is especially depressing when we remember that our Government is so ready to kill and maim so many people in brown-skinned nations all in the name of democracy.

Oh what a stinky web we weave
When first we practice to deceive.

*Ruck means "wank" in Dutch, I learn today.

Trafigura Updates: the saga unfolds in real time

In order to prevent the earlier posts on the Trafigura Toxic Waste saga from getting messy, this post will hold all the updates as I come across them, newest-found at top.

Here's a clear audio file of the saga.

Oil-trader Trafigura is under police investigation in Norway, accused of illegal import of waste. The waste was brought to Norway on the Probo Emu in 2006, and is identical to the waste that Trafigura shipped to the Ivory Coast on the Probo Koala.

The Norwegian police have been investigating Trafigura for more than a year and a half, but so far nobody in the company has been willing to give statement or answer questions from the Norwegian police.

– We are surprised, and have the impression that Trafigura is not interested in assisting in the investigation, says Hans Tore Høviskeland, head of prosecution in Økokrim.

8 August 2008 UN reports that the sites around Côte d'Ivoire's biggest city where hundreds of tons of toxic waste were illegally dumped two years ago have still not been decontaminated and continue to threaten the health of residents, a United Nations human rights expert warned today. Full report here.

16 September 2009 UN report finds that evidence indicates that the dumping of toxic wastes caused over one dozen deaths and dozens of illnesses in Côte d’Ivoire in 2006, an independent United Nations human rights expert said today.

16/10/09 Farter-Cuck is now trying to stop Parliament from debating Carter-Ruck
Will Parliament, bent double under the weight of its expenses worries, bend the knee to the snorting silks?

Hooray! Harriet Harperson has told the courts to ruck off.

Looks as if the story that Carter-Ruck solicitors use cocaine and prostitutes is speculation and rumour posted by an anti-Scientology campaigner who had been rucked over by the firm, but he does have a nice page showing their rascally faces.

The Times was gagged by Farter-Cuck on 11th September, but apparently did not have the nous of the Guardian, who front-paged the fact that they were not allowed to say anything.

On 19 December 2008 a court in Amsterdam ruled that the head of Dutch multinational firm Trafigura, which was accused of dumping toxic waste in the Ivory Coast from its vessel the Probo Koala in August 2006, should be immune from prosecution.

Conspiracy or Carter-Ruckup? Who knows?

What the Carter-Ruck? WTC-R? Can you believe their chutzpah? Their arrogance? Could it be cocaine-fuelled self-importance?

Carter-Ruckup have written to the Speaker telling him that MPs cannot discuss their precious Minton Report, which is downloadable here, and which has its own Twitter account: #mintonreport.

They really are off their heads. Out of touch with reality. On a different planet. Psychotic. Bonkers. And I say that as a qualified psychiatrist, knowing it is non PC to use these terms, but They Made Me Say It.

Oh, btw, the wonderful super-injunction that no-one is allowed to know about can be viewed here, but before you look at itI should warn you that you may be arrested, fined, or have your assets seized. Or maybe that's just for the poor blogger that uploaded it. Maybe you just get to have your eyes gouged out and your tongue cauterised. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer.

(shuffles off to bed, muttering repeatedly "I don't believe it")

Why Trafigura should be a Green campaigning issue

The Abdijan toxic slops disaster, with its subsequent attempt to suppress free speech is news today, but Trafigura will be hoping for it to be a one-day wonder. They have lost a battle, but they aim to maintain their freedom to put profit before people. It is our duty to make sure that this does not happen.

It is a core Green issue, for these reasons:

1. It began with a toxic waste problem carried by ship. Greenpeace
should be interested.
2. It is an environmental health issue. All environmental activists
should be interested. Medact and other health campaigns should be
brought in. Also there are Environmental Law practitioners and
NGOs who have an interest. An important issue of burden of proof
emerges, involving philosophy of science (even) , and cases going
back to Seveso, Seascale and Lowermoor.
3. The human rights of the people of Abidjan were infringed, so
Amnesty &c should be interested.
4. It is a North/South issue, involving Oxfam, War on Want and the
many other NGOs in that field.
5. The dumping broke European Union laws, so the European Parliament
should be involved.
6. It is a freedom of the press issue, and there are any number of
individuals and organisations involved here - Index on Censorship
comes to mind. This aspect also gives us a unusual positive
leverage on getting our message out through the media. Newsnight
has been following this story.
7. It is also an issue that transcends the left/right divide, since
the Spectator were involved as well as the Guardian. We can bridge
this divide where others cannot.
8. Most of all, it is a TransNational Corporation issue, so Corporate
Watch should be involved, and a nexus of practitioners and NGOs
are already working on reforms to company law, to . FoE sent a
rep to a conference at the AI HQ last year on this subject. This
really is a key issue of democracy, since we must rein in the
TNCs, and bring the power that they have arrogated to themselves
back to Parliaments.

We must build an alliance on this area, beginning with Trafigura, but ending with bringing the megacorporations under the rule of law.

Trafigura Cote d'Ivoire toxic onslaught : the story in short

Acknowledgements to Candace Feit for The New York Times

Six-month-old Salam Oudrawogol of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has been covered with sores since he was exposed to toxic waste in August.

The Minton Report was commissioned by Trafigura to assess the damage caused by their waste discharge in Abidjan on August 19th 2006, and Trafigura's anxiety to suppress the report was the cause of the recent Carter-Fuckup, two days ago.

I have spent half the morning trying to convert my .pdf copy of the Minton Report to go on this blog, without success. (Why can Blogspot not handle .pdf?) However, the report is now up in several places - it can be downloaded on Wikileaks, and is now actually up on Wikileaks, and also here, and so many copies are now saved on people's hard drives that Trafigura have no chance of suppressing it.

Life is short, and the Internet has a tendency to deliver nformation bit by bit, so here is a potted time-line history of this whole sorry affair:

Allegedly:

2006 April-June
Probo Koala takes on a cargo of coker naphtha in USA.
In order to reduce the sulphur content of these cargoes, on-board washing took place. To each cargo, caustic soda (NaOH, 33% aqueous) and 8kg ARI-100 EXL catalyE (Cobalt phthalocyanine sulphonate) was added. The mixture was circulated for 24hrs and allowed to settle before the caustic solution was drained to the slops tanks.
The combined slops from these washing operations were reported as: 150m3 NaOH, 37Gm3 treated naphtha and free water, and 24kg ARI-100 EXL catalyst.

2006 July
Probo Koala attempts to offload the cargo in Amsterdam, but is refused, as Trafigura is unwilling to pay the fees for detoxification. The Dutch authorities ought not to have let the Probo koala leave port with the cargo.

2006 August 19
Probo Koala transfers 500 tonnes of oil waste containing a mixture of hydrogen sulphide to a newly formed company in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, who then dump it to 12 landfill sites around the town over the next 3 weeks.

People in the vicinity experience headaches, burns to the skin, respiratory tract irritation. 100,000 medical consultations related to this occur. 12-17 connected deaths are reported. There were protests and demonstrations.

2006 September 14
The Minton report, commissioned by Trafigura, concludes
9.3 The compounds ... are capable of causing severe human health effects through inhalation and ingestion. These include headaches, breathing difficulties, nausea, eye irritation, skin ulceration, unconsciousness and death. There would also be a strong and unpleasant odour over a large area. All of these effects were as reported in this incident.

2006 September 18
Two Trafigura executive arrested in Cote d'Ivoire. Beaten up in prison. Released after Trafigura pays cleanup money.

2006 November
Trafigura launches libel action against Martyn Day, solicitor, for saying "We hold Trafigura fully to account for all the deaths and injuries that have resulted from the dumping of their waste".

2007 January
Trafigura pay $198 million to Ivorian government to pay for environmental cleanup, but deny responsibility.
Resignations from the Ivorian Government follow this deal, and the Government later falls.

2008
Class action lawsuit against Trafigura launched in London on behalf of 30,000 Ivorain victims.

2009 May
Trafigura launches libel action against BBC Newsnight for alleging that the company had tried to cover up its role in these events.

2009 September
Compensation package agreed, the company to pay about £1000 to each of 31,000 people affected by the toxins, while still denying legal responsibility.

2009 October 13
Attempts by Trafigura to use UK's oppressive libel laws to cover up its record are defeated by Internet activists.

PS: Notes, Links and Updates

Here is an excellent report from the Independent. Greenpeace Netherlands is aiming to get them for corporate manslaughter.

Here is a link to a .pdf of the internal Trafigura emails as they mull the deal, from buying the coker naphtha in the first place to arriving at Abidjan to wash their hands of the stuff. Useful insight into how they work. Here is one of the more interesting excerpts:
Naeem Ahmed

Sent: 24 March 2006 12:30

To: David Fbster

Cc: ‘Tom Burke’

Subject: RE: La Skhirra

I would prefer to leave this out

Due to the manufacturing process of the unleaded gasoline blendstock, a proportion of

Di-enes are present. These chemica]s are known for causing stability problems in oil

products and are the likely cause of the noxious odours being produced in the sump

tank.
---------
(Dave duly complies with the request)
Interesting to note that one of them is called "Tom Burke". Could that be because he has the vestiges of a conscience?

Trafigura must be tried in court, and the national and international regulating megacorporations must be improved to stop this happening again.

Links

Victims get cheated of their money
Dump illegal in EU law
Norwegian police investigating the other Trafigura incident
Trafigura's defence has no scientific status
The Question of "proof"
NGOs draft up laws needed to constrain TransNationalCorporations