This is
"Question 13" to be answered by Eni.
Introduction
Question 13:
The tree is recognized by its own fruits
In the
Gospel of Luke (6:43-44) is recorded one of the narratives of Jesus Christ:
“No good
tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each
tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes,
or grapes from briers”.
After being
unfairly dismissed in 2001 by Eni Brazil, I founded the Brazilian
Business Ethics Institute that in almost 15 years has been promoting Business
Ethics both in the Brazilian business environment and, especially, among the
students because they will be the leaders of the companies of tomorrow. My tree
has been bearing good fruits!
I affirm
with sadness in the heart of someone who has works in the Brazilian subsidiary
of Eni and, doing the right thing, was wrongly dismissed: Eni is
involved in several “corruption scandals” and “disrespect for the environment”! All
are attitudes that are of “public domain”:
Brazil:
LavaJato Operation
Four years
ago, the largest anti-corruption operation in Brazil, called “LavaJato
Operation”, has begun to stripe away the promiscuity between the public and the
private.
The scheme
of frauds and corruption happened in the largest company in Brazil, the
state-owned Petrobras, where executives of the company favored other companies
in exchange for bribery. The deviations of Petrobras’ coffers are estimated in
over 20 billion dollars.
The Italian
company Saipem, controlled by Eni, was denounced to the Brazilian Criminal
Justice for being part of this corruption scheme by paying bribes to a director
from Petrobras, in order to gain advantages in Saipem’s contracts with the
Brazilian state-owned company (Doc. 44).
Algeria:
Saipem Case
In February
2018, the Public Ministry asks the Italian Criminal Court to convict the former
CEO of Eni, Mr. Paolo Scaroni, for more than six years of prison for the bribe payment
at Algeria (Doc. 44-A).
Congo:
Brazzaville Case
In April
2018, this was the headline of an Italian newspaper about a new scandal of
corruption at the Republic of Congo (Doc. 44-B):
New scandal
shakes Eni in Congo Brazzaville. Here's who is behind Marine XI giant gas field
Three
Italians and a Britishman secretly took control of it hiding behind offshore
enterprises. Now we can reveal who they are. And all their connections with the
state-owned company based in Rome.
Panama
Papers & The Bribe Factory
Eni is also
being investigating for participating in a scheme called “Panama Paper”,
involving the CEO of Eni and his wife (Doc. 44-C) and the company is also part of
one of the biggest scandals of corruption in the world, known as “The Bribe
Factory” (Doc. 44-D).
Nigeria:
Niger Delta Case
On 9
January, Eni appeared in front of the Tribunal of Milan to answer for its
record of oil pollution in Nigeria. The plaintiff is the Ikebiri community of
Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, represented by their leader Chief Francis
Ododo, whose land was polluted by an oil spill in 2010.
If
successful, this will be the first case of an Italian corporation being held
accountable by an Italian court for environmental and human rights abuses
overseas.
The people
of Ikebiri are seeking adequate clean-up and compensation from ENI for the
pollution of the creek, ponds and trees caused by its subsidiary’s equipment.
Friends of the Earth Europe and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria are supporting the community in bringing the case to court (Doc. 44-E).
Nigeria: OPL 245 Case
Eni, the
former CEO and the current CEO of company are being investigated for
“international corruption” in Nigeria, Italy and London by the millionaire
payment of bribes in the OPL 245 Case (Doc. 44-F) also known as the Bribery
of the Century because the bribe of US$ 1.1 billion paid in this
oilfield is the highest illegal payment in the global corporate story.
Now,
Italy's Criminal Justice transformed them all in "defendants" for
your crimes (Doc. 44-G) in this Case.
Sicily:
Oil Monster Case
Everyone in
the Sicilian town of Gela knows someone who has been hit by the health crisis
that has gripped the town for decades.
Mortality
rates are higher than elsewhere on the island, and the town has an unusually
high rate of birth defects, including the highest rate in the world of a rare
urethra disorder.
Local
people have long blamed pollution. A 2011 study by the Italian health service
drew a similar conclusion: dozens of babies were dying in the womb or within a
week of being born every year from complications caused by environmental
contamination. Now, 10 years into a battle to assign criminal responsibility
for the town’s health problems, the Italians living in this wasteland feel like
they may be a step closer to justice.
Last week
prosecutors brought charges of environmental pollution against five managers of
Eni, Italy’s largest oil company, which has run an oil refinery in Gela for 54
years.
The
prosecutors said that Eni for years had been illegally hiding tonnes of toxic
waste in a three-mile-long undersea dump off Sicily (Doc. 44-H).
Eni: an
Unethical Company
There are
so many problems of corruption at Eni that the company could be identified by
its Stakeholders as an “Unethical Company”.
Questions
13:
13-A) The
cases of corruption and disrespect to the environment mentioned above are all
“public domain” and despite the evidence and, in some cases, Eni and its
executives, including the current CEO of the company and its predecessor, have
already been denounced by the Public Criminal Italian Ministry as well as
having a lawsuit where all of the are “defendants”, Eni still “denies” the
involviment and “states” that it “trusts” in its executives and that the
company always acts in an Ethical way. This position of Eni isn’t totally
“contradictory” to the transparency and governance required in the global
corporate world and “preached” by the company through its official documents”,
such as: “Corporate Governance and Shareholding Structure Report”, “Integrated
Annual Report” and “Eni’s Code of Ethics”?
13-B) Are
all these cases of corruption known to the SEC? Is this government institution
of the United Sates already investigating these cases? Eni has already been
fined by the SEC. Is there a risk of new fines? Or is Eni already making some
sort of agreement with the SEC?
13-C)
Wouldn’t it be more dignified and honorable if Eni “assume” its mistakes before
its Stakeholders, stating what actions will be taken to reverse its management
problems?
13-D) Isn’t
Eni afraid of being labeled by its stakeholders as an “unethical company”? Will
this not jeopardize the company’s market value damaging its shareholders in the
future?
I am Eni's
Whistleblower that suffers "retaliation" from this company until
today.
There will
be a total of "15 questions" which, in these 17 years, Eni has not
yet answered.
Follow
daily the new questions in this Blog to see if the Italian oil giant will
answer.
