Question 13 to be answered by Eni

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.

Question 13 is also in my LinkedIN.