Ep81 - 120 days... No answer!

In the previous episode, I showed that, on December 18, 2020, a proposal for an amicable settlement of the Flinto Case was formally submitted.

€5.5 million.

But the amount was only part of a much broader document.

The proposal reconstructed almost twenty years of the Flinto Case and incorporated new internal documents produced by Agip Brasil and the Italian Agip/Eni structure, held by Petrobras after it acquired Agip Brasil’s assets and obtained by me under Brazil’s Access to Information Law.

The documents were on the table.

So was the proposal.

Then the waiting began.

📌 April 19, 2021.

Exactly 120 days had passed since the proposal was submitted.

I was still waiting for an answer.

So I wrote directly to the then-Chairwoman of Eni’s Board, copying the other Board members, including CEO Claudio Descalzi.

I began by recalling that 120 days had passed since the proposal was submitted.

The email also recorded that the proposal had been submitted to Eni’s external lawyer after the then-Italian Ambassador to Brazil, Francesco Azzarello, had informed me that Eni was waiting for an amicable settlement proposal.

My purpose was simple.

I wanted to know two things:

🔹 Had Eni’s Board received my proposal?

And:

🔹When could we discuss bringing the Flinto Case to an end?

This is exactly what I wrote:

📌 “The purpose of this e-mail is to confirm whether the Board of Eni has received my Proposal for Amicable Settlement, and also to find out when we can discuss the possibility of putting an end on this story that, in August 2021, will complete 20 long years.”

I was not submitting a new complaint or presenting a new proposal.

I was asking whether the Board had received the proposal submitted 120 days earlier - and when we could discuss it.

There was another significant coincidence.

Exactly one year earlier, on Apr 19, 2020, I had written to Lucia Calvosa when she had been nominated to become Chairwoman of Eni’s new Board.

I presented the Flinto Case and provided documents so that the new corporate governance could know my version of the facts before reaching its own conclusion.

Now, on Apr 19, 2021, I was returning to the same Board.

A year had passed.

The proposal had been submitted.

The new documents were available.

And the Flinto Case was approaching its 20th anniversary.

But the central 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?

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

🔹 For the fourth time.

I am not asking anyone to believe me.

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

📌 NEXT EPISODE: THE FLINTO CASE RETURNS TO ENI’S AGM. FOR THE FOURTH TIME.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Email to Eni’s Board - Apr19, 2021

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

Ep79 - Eni was waiting for a settlement proposal

In the previous episode, I showed how Italian diplomacy entered the Flinto Case.

After my message was forwarded to the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry, his then Chief of Staff, Ettore Sequi, referred the Flinto Case to the Italian Embassy in Brazil.

On November 10, 2020, Carlo Jacobucci, Economic Counsellor in Brazil, wrote on behalf of the then Ambassador Francesco Azzarello:

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

The Embassy therefore informed me that it would contact Eni.

Just over two weeks later, something happened.

📌 November 26, 2020.

I spoke with Ambassador Francesco Azzarello.

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

But there was something else.

And it could change the course of this story.

According to what Ambassador Azzarello told me following the Embassy’s contact with the company:

🔴 Eni was waiting for a proposal for an amicable settlement.

After almost two decades of conflict, that information had a special significance for me.

🔹 In 2015, following the first decision of the Civil Court of Rome, my lawyers had already sought an amicable settlement.

🔹 In 2018, during Eni’s Annual General Meeting, critical shareholder Mauro Meggiolaro, representing Fondazione Finanza Etica, had publicly offered to mediate an attempt to resolve the dispute between the parties.

The meeting never took place.

🔹 In 2020, a court-referred mediation in Rome had also ended without an agreement.

But now there was a new element:

🔹 according to the information conveyed to me by the Italian Ambassador to Brazil, Eni was waiting for an amicable settlement proposal.

I decided to submit one.

📌 December 18, 2020.

Through my Italian lawyer, a proposal would be formally submitted.

And then a new wait would begin.

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:

THE 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

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