Court fines company €1m for shipping toxic waste illegally

The verdict marked the first time Trafigura has been convicted in the scandal, said company lawyer Robert de Bree.

The company, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the case. But it paid ?€157 million (132m) to Ivory Coast to help clean up the waste and another ?€40 million (33m) 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 last year that "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.

Toxic waste sickened thousands in the Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan, in August 2006, though Trafigura insists the waste from the Probo Koala could not have caused serious illness. The company said it would study the verdicts "with a view to appeal."

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 (22) per ton of waste, while in Amsterdam it would have cost ?€750 (632) 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," Mr Bauduin said.

Prosecutors had asked for a fine of ?€2 million (1.6m) for Trafigura. The company was cleared of forgery.

"While Trafigura is pleased to have been acquitted of the charge of forgery it is disappointed by the judges' ruling on the other two, which it believes to be incorrect," the company said in a statement.

Another Trafigura lawyer, Michael Wladimiroff, said that the conviction for exporting waste to Ivory Coast was based on the court's decision to apply an incorrect waste management treaty.

Mr Wladimiroff said Trafigura argued that the Marine Pollution Treaty applied and that under that treaty it was legal to export the waste to Ivory Coast. The court decided a different treaty applied, under which sending the waste to Abidjan was illegal.

In Ivory Coast, where almost 30,000 victims and their families received 984 compensation cheques in March, the ruling was greeted as a moral victory because Trafigura has never admitted to any wrongdoing.

"Finally, Trafigura has been called out in a court of law," said Eliance Kouassi, president of the National Federation of Toxic Waste Victims in Ivory Coast. "It's a real victory for us," he said.

Amsterdam District Court also convicted Trafigura employee Naeem Ahmed for leading the effort to dump the waste "while its dangerous nature was concealed."