Ep80 - The €5.5 million settlement proposal

In the previous episode, I explained how, in November 2020, Italian diplomacy entered the Flinto Case.

After the Italian Embassy in Brazil contacted Eni, then-Ambassador Francesco Azzarello told me that Eni was waiting for a proposal for an amicable settlement.

A few weeks later, that proposal would be submitted.

But first, something important happened.

📌 November 26, 2020.

I received from Petrobras documents obtained under Brazil’s Access to Information Law, following determinations by Brazil’s Office of the Comptroller General - CGU.

Petrobras had acquired Agip Brasil’s assets in 2004 and held documents from Eni’s former Brazilian subsidiary.

Among them were four records produced by Agip Brasil and the Italian Agip/Eni structure in 2001 and 2002:

🔹 1. The Internal Audit Report dated July 26, 2001, produced after my whistleblowing report and only six days before my dismissal.

🔹 2. A fax dated October 3, 2002, sent by Agip Petroli in Italy to the President of Agip Brasil, forwarding my complaint to Eni’s Board and requesting further investigation.

🔹 3. A memorandum dated October 7, 2002, signed by two Agip Brasil executives, presenting the “circumstances” of my dismissal in response to inquiries from Italy.

🔹 4. A memorandum dated February 7, 2002, produced by the then-head of Internal Audit only six days after I appealed to the company’s Ethics Committee.

These documents were extremely significant.

They allowed me to compare the company’s internal records with the “three versions” presented over the years regarding my dismissal - including information published in Eni’s official "Questions and Answers before the 2017 Shareholders’ Meeting".

Then came:

📌 December 18, 2020.

Four days after my 57th birthday and exactly one week before Christmas, my lawyer formally submitted to Eni a proposal for an amicable settlement.

The document stated that the case first needed to be reconstructed in light of the “new and important documentation” I had obtained.

It reconstructed the Flinto Case chronologically, beginning with the events of 2001 and drawing on dozens of documents, witness statements and other evidence.

At the end came the financial proposal:

€5.5 MILLION.

After almost twenty years, this was an opportunity to examine the dispute in light of evidence that now included internal records I did not possess when everything began.

But something was more important than the amount:

The documents were on the table.

And the same question remained:

🔴 Why not submit the Flinto Case - the facts, the documents and the different versions presented regarding my dismissal - to a truly independent investigation?

I am not asking anyone to believe me.

I am asking them to examine the documents before reaching an independent conclusion.

📌 NEXT EPISODE: 120 DAYS. NO ANSWER.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Amicable Settlement Proposal:
🔹 Original DOC
🔹 English