Ep78 - When Italian diplomacy entered my case

In the previous episode, I showed that, following the lack of response from Eni’s new Board of Directors, on July 16, 2020, I took the Flinto Case to the NCP Brazil because of what I considered clear instances of the company’s non-compliance with the OECD - OCDE Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

A few months later, another institutional path opened.

This time, through Italian diplomacy.

📌 November 9, 2020.

Following contacts with the then Italian Foreign Minister, the Chief of Staff at the
Farnesina, Italian diplomat Ettore Sequi, referred my case to Italy’s highest-ranking representative in my country, the Italian Ambassador to Brazil, Francesco Azzarello, so that I could discuss my case involving Eni.

That same day, I wrote to the Ambassador.

The following day, I received a response from Carlo Jacobucci, Counsellor and Head of the Commercial Department at the Italian Embassy in Brazil, sent on behalf of Ambassador Azzarello:

🔹 “We will contact Eni regarding the matter and, as soon as we receive a response, we will contact you”.

That was important.

🔴 The Italian Embassy in Brazil would contact Eni about the Flinto Case.

I replied to Jacobucci asking only that Ambassador Azzarello also have the opportunity to hear my side of the story:

📌 “I would like Ambassador Azzarello to have the opportunity to hear my version of the facts involving Eni, just as he will hear the Italian oil giant’s version.”

The documents record this sequence of messages between November 9 and 10, 2020.

Just over two weeks later, I would finally speak with Ambassador Francesco Azzarello.

📌 November 26, 2020.

During that conversation, Ambassador Azzarello informed me that he could not take the Flinto Case to the Italian Prime Minister because doing so was outside the scope of his institutional role.

But I would receive another piece of information - one that opened a new possibility in this story:

🔹 an amicable settlement.

25 years later, my request remains the same:

🔴 That Eni allow a truly independent investigation into the Flinto Case, examining the facts, the documents, and the different versions of my dismissal presented by the company itself over all these years.

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I am asking them to examine the documents before reaching an independent conclusion.

📌 NEXT EPISODE:

ENI WAS WAITING FOR A SETTLEMENT PROPOSAL.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Correspondence with the Italian Embassy in Brazil (November 2020)
🔹 Original in Portuguese
🔹 English Translation

2️⃣ Memorial — The Flinto Case

3️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of Events

Ep77 - Taking the Flinto Case to the OECD

In the previous episode, I showed that, in May 2020, a newly composed Board of Directors took over Eni’s governance.

That same month, for the fourth time, I took the Flinto Case directly to the company’s governance.

I submitted documents and asked the new Board to have my case investigated and analyzed.

My request was clear:

🔴 Investigate.

Examine the documents.

Compare the different versions.

Establish the facts.

And reach an independent conclusion.

I received no response from the new Board of Directors.

Faced with that silence, I decided to turn to an external institution.

📌 July 16, 2020.

I took the Flinto Case to the Brazilian National Contact Point for the OECD - OCDE Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (NCP Brazil).

It marked an important shift in this story.

For almost two decades, I had tried to obtain answers from within Eni itself - through executives, different Boards of Directors, internal oversight bodies, and Shareholders’ Meetings.

Now, I was taking the conflict beyond the company’s walls.

I filed a complaint with the NCP Brazil concerning Eni’s conduct in relation to the Flinto Case:

🔹 I submitted documents.

🔹 I reconstructed the chronology of events.

🔹 I reported my original whistleblowing disclosure in 2001, my dismissal, and the events that followed.

🔹 And I brought before an institutional mechanism linked to the OECD - OCDE Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises a story that, at that point, was approaching its 20th anniversary.

For me, there was one fundamental question:

🔴 If Eni was not willing to conduct an independent investigation into the Flinto Case, could an external institution finally examine the facts and the documents?

I did not yet know what the answer would be.

But on July 16, 2020, a new chapter was beginning.

The Flinto Case had reached the NCP Brazil.

And just a few months later, another institutional path would open.

This time, through Italian diplomacy.

25 years later, however, my request remains essentially the same:

🔴 That Eni allow a truly independent investigation into the Flinto Case, examining the facts, the documents, and the different versions of my dismissal presented by the company itself over these 25 years.

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I am asking them to examine the documents before reaching an independent conclusion.

📌 NEXT EPISODE:

WHEN ITALIAN DIPLOMACY ENTERED THE FLINTO CASE.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Complaint submitted to the NCP Brazil (July 16, 2020)
🔹 Original document
🔹 English version

2️⃣ Supplement Complaint submitted to the NCP Brazil (July 20, 2020)
🔹 Original document
🔹 English version

3️⃣ Memorial — The Flinto Case

4️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of Events 

Ep76 - A new Board. The same request: investigate!

In the previous episode, I showed that the mediation related to Eni’s second lawsuit against me ended without an agreement.

But a new opportunity seemed to be emerging.

📌 2020. A new Eni Board of Directors.

At the Annual General Meeting in May of that year, a newly composed Board took over the company’s governance.

There was a new Chairwoman, Lucia Calvosa.

CEO Claudio Descalzi remained in office.

The new Board was composed of: Lucia Calvosa, Claudio Descalzi, Ada Lucia De Cesaris, Filippo Giansante, Pietro Guindani, Karina Litvack, Emanuele Piccinno, Nathalie Tocci e Raphael Vermeir CBE.

For me, however, the fundamental question was different:

🔴 Would a new governance be willing to do what I had been asking for nearly two decades?

🔹 Investigate.

Not simply accept my version.

Not simply accept the versions presented by the company itself.

But conduct a truly independent investigation, examining the facts, the documents and the different versions concerning my dismissal.

That is what I asked the new Board of Directors once again.

I submitted documents and asked the new governance to conduct an independent review of the Flinto Case - a due diligence of the facts and documents accumulated since 2001.

My request was simple:

🔹 Examine the documents.

🔹 Compare the different versions.

🔹 Establish the facts.

🔹 And reach an independent conclusion.

After almost 20 years, I was not asking the new Board to believe me.

I was asking it to investigate.

And that remains the essence of the ENI’S WAY — 25 YEARS OF TRUTH campaign.

🔴 25 years later, my request remains the same: that Eni allow a truly independent investigation into the facts and documents of the Flinto Case.

I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking you to examine the documents before reaching an independent conclusion.

But would the new Board respond to this request?

The answer - or the absence of one - would lead me to seek a new institution outside Eni.

📌 NEXT EPISODE:

TAKING THE FLINTO CASE TO THE OECD - OCDE.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Message to Eni’s new Board of Directors (2020)

2️⃣ Memorial - The Flinto Case

3️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of Events

Ep75 - The Court-referred mediation

In the previous episode, I showed that, at Eni’s Annual General Meeting in May 2020, 13 questions concerning the Flinto Case were submitted to the company.
One of them asked:

🔹 Would Eni participate in the mediation related to the second lawsuit filed against me?

There was a reason for that question.

📌 October 29, 2019. Rome.

During a hearing in the second lawsuit, the judge recorded that the mediation procedure had not been initiated and referred the parties to mediation.

📌 July 3, 2020. Rome.

The mediation finally took place before the Rome Mediation Body.

The official record of that meeting expressly identifies the procedure as:

🔴 COURT-REFERRED MEDIATION.

I was represented by my Italian lawyer.

🔹 No agreement was reached, and the mediation ended without a settlement between the parties.

This was not the first attempt at mediation.

In 2018, during Eni’s Annual General Meeting, critical shareholder Mauro Meggiolaro, representing Fondazione Finanza Etica, had offered to mediate a meeting between Eni and me.

That meeting never took place.

In 2020, the circumstances were different.

This time, the mediation took place after the parties had been referred to it by the judge.

And it ended without an agreement.

But my fundamental request was - and remains - much simpler:

🔴 That Eni allow a truly independent investigation into the Flinto Case, examining the facts, the documents, and the different versions of my dismissal presented by the company itself over these 25 years.

I am not asking anyone to believe me. I am asking them to examine the documents before reaching an independent conclusion.

And another opportunity for that would arise.

Eni had just begun a new governance cycle.

A new Board of Directors. The same request: investigate.

📌 NEXT EPISODE:

A NEW BOARD. THE SAME REQUEST: INVESTIGATE.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Mediation Record (July 3, 2020)
🔹 Original document
🔹 English translation

2️⃣ Memorial (1999-2025)

3️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of Events

 

Ep74 - Eni's AGM 2020: 13 questions... One Answer!

In the previous episode, I showed that, on April 19, 2020, I wrote directly to Lucia Calvosa, then nominated to become Chairwoman of Eni’s Board of Directors.

I presented the Flinto Case, provided documents and pointed to questions that remained unanswered.

A few weeks later, the case would once again reach Eni’s Annual General Meeting.

📌 May 13, 2020.

For the third time, critical shareholder Mauro Meggiolaro, through Fondazione Finanza Etica, brought my case to Eni’s AGM.

Eni’s official document included a specific section:

🔹 “Section III on behalf of the whistle-blower Douglas Linares Flinto.”

And 13 questions were submitted.

Among them:

🔹 What facts, evidence and documents supported Eni’s version of my dismissal?

🔹 Why did Eni state at the 2017 AGM that my case had been published in the “Eni 2002 Financial Statements” if, according to my challenge, there was no reference to me in that document?

🔹 Would Eni participate in a meeting with me, mediated by Fondazione Finanza Etica?

🔹 Would Eni participate in the mediation within the second lawsuit?

🔹 Where were the documents exchanged between Eni headquarters and Agip Brazil concerning my case?

🔹 Would Eni conduct an independent investigation into the Flinto Case?

And finally:

🔴 If an independent investigation found mistakes by Agip Brazil — and Eni itself — would the company acknowledge them so that, after 19 years, I could restore my reputation?

13 questions.

What was Eni’s answer?

🔴 “Answer to questions 1.1 to 1.13”

Eni stated that the case was the subject of pending disputes and therefore:

“Eni does not consider this to be the place to deal with them and further discuss them, since they are already under the attention of the judiciary.”

No individual answers.

No indication of where my case appeared in the Eni 2002 Financial Statements.

No answer about the documents, mediation or an independent investigation.

📌 Eni chose not to address the substance of the 13 questions.

And this raises an inevitable question:

If, in 2017, Eni’s AGM was considered an appropriate place for the company to present its version of the Flinto Case, why, in 2020, was the same AGM no longer considered an appropriate place to answer questions challenging that version with documentary evidence?

In 2017, Eni presented its version.

In 2020, when confronted with questions and documents, it referred the matter to the judiciary.

Yet the Italian judiciary itself had opened another path:

🔹 mediation.

📌 July 1, 2020.

That will be another document in this story, which I will present next Monday.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ AGM 2020 - Questions and Answers

2️⃣ Memorial (1999-2025)

3️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of Events