Exporting toxic waste to the Ivory Coast in west Africa and
trying to conceal the cargo's true nature has cost a Swiss oil firm
one million euro (£840,000).
Trafigura hid its cargo's dangerous nature when it was being
taken off a ship in Amsterdam.
The prosecution had asked Amsterdam District Court to fine
Trafigura two million euro.
A member of staff at the firm and the skipper of the waste-laden
ship were also convicted for their role in the scandal in 2006.
Thousands of residents in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital,
became sick from toxic waste in August 2006, with 16 dying.
The company, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, has consistently
denied any wrongdoing in the case. But it paid 157 million euros to
Ivory Coast to help clean up the waste and another 40 million euro
to victims in a British settlement this year.
Under the British settlement, lawyers agreed the waste could
only have caused minor ailments. But the UN's top expert on toxic
waste, Okechukwu Ibeanu, said in 2009 "it is clear that there is a
direct and indirect connection" between the waste and 100,000
illnesses and 16 deaths that Ivory Coast attributed to the
pollution.
At the criminal trial in Amsterdam last month, prosecutors
accused Trafigura of putting profits ahead of safety by hiding
hazardous waste in a ship that docked in Amsterdam in 2006 and then
exporting it illegally. The waste was later dumped in Ivory Coast
in what became a major environmental scandal.
Presiding Judge Frans Bauduin said Trafigura chose to dump the
waste cheaply in Ivory Coast "for commercial reasons".
The company employed in Abidjan charged 35 dollars per ton of
waste, while in Amsterdam it would have cost almost 1,000 dollars
per ton, the court said.
"Under those circumstances, Trafigura - which by that time knew
of the exact composition (of the waste) - should never have agreed
to its processing at such a price," the judge said.