A pot of £30 million (US$49.5 million) compensation due to be paid to thousands of victims of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast may end up being stolen thanks to the Ivory Coast regime’s corruption, lawyers said on Wednesday.
The money was handed over by oil traders Trafigura in an out-of-court settlement in London and deposited in a bank in the west African state’s capital, Abidjan, ready to be shared out in cash to each of the 30,000 victims. However, the entire sum has been frozen in a sudden move backed by the local state prosecutor, said Martyn Day, the senior partner at Leigh Day, the London lawyers who won the landmark settlement.
Moves are now in train to order all the cash to be handed over to a local group claiming to represent the victims, he said. At the same time, Day has received a request to meet representatives of a senior Ivorian figure in Paris, to agree to come to an “arrangement.”
“Blatant corruption” could be occurring, Day said.
“There is a very serious risk that the compensation monies will simply disappear and our clients will see none of it,” he said.
The UK trial judge in the compensation case, issued a declaration on Wednesday saying that the court was “deeply concerned” because to hand over the £30 million to anyone else would frustrate the order of the British court.
The local court in Abidjan is due to rule on the claim this week.
These developments follow the resolution of a bitterly fought compensation case in which Trafigura, a London-based multinational oil trading firm, became internationally notorious after issuing a super-injunction, which had the effect of preventing reports of a question asked in Britain’s parliament.
Hundreds of tonnes of sulphur-contaminated toxic oil waste were cheaply dumped on landfills and in ditches around Abidjan in 2006. The cargo ship had been chartered by Trafigura. In the weeks after, the fumes caused thousands of sick people to besiege local hospitals.
Day said that after Trafigura agreed to hand over £30 million to compensate those made ill, his firm had arranged an elaborate system of pin cards with the bank in Abidjan to allow local residents, most of whom did not have bank accounts, to withdraw about £1,000 in cash each.
However, “on 22 October, we were served with an order freezing the payment of the compensation,” he said.
A local figure claimed to be president of the “National Coordination of Toxic Waste Victims of Cote d’Ivoire,” which was said to represent the victims. He applied to have all the money transferred to the alleged association’s account and out of Day’s hands.
Day refused to go along with this suggestion. A few days later, the Ivorian state prosecutor announced that the compensation money should be transferred — a stance that local lawyers said the Abidjan court was likely to accept.
“We are extremely wary that if the funds are transferred the compensation will not be distributed among the claimants,” Day said.
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