The CEO of Agip Petroli came to Brazil

In my previous post, I presented the memorandum sent by Agip do Brasil to Eni headquarters on October 7, 2002.

The document sought to justify my dismissal and presented a “narrative” of the events that I dispute based on documents produced at the time.

If that response had been sufficient to resolve the questions raised before Eni’s Board of Directors, the Flinto Case would probably have ended there.

But that is not what happened.

Headquarters continued to address the matter.

And what happened next was particularly significant.

Angelo Mario Taraborrelli, then CEO of Agip Petroli, personally came to Brazil - a fact reported by Eni’s Brazilian subsidiary in its own corporate magazine.

He was not just any executive.

Taraborrelli headed Agip Petroli in Italy and therefore stood at a higher hierarchical level than the management of the Brazilian subsidiary that had responded to headquarters only days earlier.

His presence in Brazil marks an important development in my documentary reconstruction of the events.

A matter that until then had been handled primarily within the Brazilian organization was now receiving the direct attention of one of headquarters’ senior executives.

The chronology is worth considering:

🔹 August 1: my letter reaches ENI’s Board of Directors.

🔹 October 3: headquarters instructs the Brazilian subsidiary to review and further investigate the issues raised.

🔹 October 7: the subsidiary responds with the memorandum I presented yesterday, devoting much of its response to a “narrative” about the whistleblower.

🔹 After that: the CEO of Agip Petroli comes to Brazil.

This sequence raises an inevitable question:

📌 if the explanation provided by the Brazilian subsidiary had satisfactorily clarified the case, why did the matter continue to move forward within the headquarters structure?

I do not intend to answer that question with speculation.

I prefer to continue doing what the ENI’S WAY - 25 YEARS OF TRUTH campaign has set out to do from the beginning:

📌 present the documents and reconstruct the events in chronological order.

Because what happened after Taraborrelli’s presence in Brazil is even more important.

That is what I will present tomorrow.

After twenty-five years, my request remains the same:

🔴 compare ENI’s institutional narrative with the documents produced at the time.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ Letter to ENI's Board of Directors - Aug 1, 2002:
🔹 Italian version
🔹 English version

2️⃣ ENI Fax to CEO Agip do Brasil - Oct 3, 2002:
🔹 Italian version
🔹 English version

3️⃣ Agip do Brasil Memorandum to ENI - Oct 7, 2002:
🔹 Portuguese version
🔹 English version

4️⃣ Agip do Brasil corporate magazine - visit CEO Agip Petroli:
🔹 Portuguese version
🔹 English version

 

Four days later...

In my previous post, I showed that, on October 3, 2002, Eni headquarters instructed Agip do Brasil to review and further investigate the issues raised in my letter to the Board of Directors.

Just four days later, the Brazilian subsidiary sent its response.

The memorandum, signed by the Human Resources Director and the General Manager of Internal Audit, should have focused on addressing the issues raised.

But much of the document took a different path:

📌 it constructed a “narrative” to justify my dismissal and discredit my conduct as a whistleblower.

There is one particularly significant example.

The memorandum states that it was the President of Sindipetroleo Mt who informed Agip about the irregularities and that, following this communication, the Commercial Director and the General Manager of Internal Audit travelled to Cuiabá.

The documents I am presenting in this campaign show a different sequence of events.

I was the one who approached the President of Sindipetroleo Mt to confirm the irregularities I had identified. He confirmed the problems and, days later, received a visit from Agip do Brasil’s Commercial Director - as recorded in a public statement formally executed before a notary.

The memorandum also portrays me as having adopted an “ambiguous and uncooperative attitude”, broken the company’s trust, and threatened to report Agip do Brasil to Eni.

I dispute these statements with documents produced at the time.

But there is an even more revealing contradiction within the memorandum itself.

After attempting to justify my dismissal, the document concludes by acknowledging that the continuation of the investigation confirmed improper conduct and resulted in the dismissal of the Cuiabá Regional Sales Manager and two Business Advisors.

If this narrative had settled the matter for headquarters, the story would probably have ended there.

But it did not.

The events that followed show that headquarters did not consider the matter closed.

And what happened next took the case to another level.

Angelo Mario Taraborrelli, CEO of Agip Petroli - hierarchically above the CEO of the Brazilian operation - personally travelled to Brazil.

That is what I will show in my next post.

After twenty-five years, my request remains the same:

🔴 compare ENI’s institutional narrative with the documents produced at the time.


❎ Learn more:

1️⃣ ENI Fax to CEO Agip do Brasil (October 3, 2002):
🔹 Original in Italian
🔹 English translation

2️⃣ Agip do Brasil Memorandum to ENI — October 7, 2002:
🔹 Original in Portuguese
🔹 English translation

3️⃣ Statement by the President of SindiPetróleo-MT:
🔹 Original in Portuguese
🔹 English version

4️⃣ Chronology of Facts for the Reconstruction of the Events