Oil Giant Fined for Shipping Sludge to Ivory Coast

A Dutch court on Friday imposed the maximum fine of 1 million Euros, or $1.28 million, on the oil trading company Trafigura for illegally exporting highly toxic sludge that was dumped off the Ivory Coast. The stinking waste was eventually linked to the deaths of 16 people and thousands of illnesses in 2006.

The court also found the company guilty of covering up the hazardous nature of the waste when it first tried to unload its toxic waste, which included high levels of caustic soda, sulfur compounds and hydrogen sulfide, in the port of Amsterdam. The sludge was pumped back on board after Amsterdam Port Services, a waste processing company realized the nature of the waste and raised their price for processing it from $15,000 to $300,000. With a new higher price, the Probo Koala, left with its load. After leaving the port the slop made it's way into the waters off the Ivory Coast.

Trafigura has denied wrongdoing, but in separate settlements it paid $200 million to the Ivory Coast for clean-up and $50 million to 30,000 victims and their families. The ruling of the Amsterdam court marks the first time Trafigura has been criminally convicted in the sludge scandal.

Another criminal lawsuit in the case is still before a court in The Hague.

Source: The New York Times