After 20 years... My fight continues!

Exactly 20 years ago I fulfilled Eni’s Code of Ethics...

20 years ago I was fired by the corrupt executives that I reported...

For 20 years I contacted four different Boards and three CEOs...

For 20 years I have been suffering reprisal...

In these 20 years, I try to make Eni fulfill the words and the spirit of its own Code of Ethics... 

For 20 years I try to rescue and restore my name, my honor and my reputation...

My fight continues!

ESG vs Whistleblower Protection

In many companies around the world, when someone is hired, the Code of Ethics is introduced to the new employee, who is informed that the code is the main instrument of the company’s governance and the guideline to all the corporate actions. However, when reporting any nonconformity to the Code of Ethics, or deviations of conduct of colleagues or superiors, the Whistleblower is fired, has their professional career destroyed and their reputation buried.

For a company to be ethical and fulfill all the premises of the ESG, it is necessary to protect the Whistleblowers and influence other companies to do the same.

Otherwise, the Code of Ethics won’t serve any purpose and the company will only have a nice ethical speech!

Spirit & Compass

The spirit of the Code of Ethics of any company!

The compass of the whistleblower!

23 June: World Whistleblowers Day 2021

Council of Europe Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law

Whistleblowing is about protecting HumanRights and the RuleOfLaw in a democratic society!

The Council of Europe Recommendation encourages its 47 member states to have in place a normative, institutional and judicial framework to protect whistleblowers.

Read more about Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7  

#WeWhistleblowingAsOne

 

Are you a Whistleblower? So... #WeWhistleblowingAsOne

Eni's Board: put yourself in my shoes!

One of the greatest virtues of a man (and a woman) is to put himself in someone’s shoes. This worthy attitude makes use find out first-hand what the other is experiencing!

What if it was one of you living what I’ve been going through in these almost 20 years? How would you feel? What would you think of the attitude of Eni’s Board, which goes against the premises, the principles and the values of Eni's Code of Ethics?

Eni & Me: This is us!

 

Eni & Shell: The Bribery of the Century

 

Commenting on the judgment, a spokesperson for campaign groups Global Witness, HEDA, Re:Common and Corner House said: "The judgment lays bare the stinking carcass of the OPL 245 deal. Many will be mystified by the conclusions drawn by the judges. The bar they have set for a conviction for international corruption is impossibly high - presenting companies with a 'get out of jail free' card. We urge the public prosecutor to appeal this judgment, which, if allowed to stand, creates a terrible precedent for the global fight against corruption and the ability to hold fossil fuel companies to account.”

Read more about this subject at article. 

Eni & ESG

Eni's Board don't give a damn about issues involving ESG... My case proves it!

This is Eni's Way!

Eni & Me

 This is us!

Microsoft vs Eni

This month, the global media is talking about the "investigation" carried out by Microsoft's Board on the love affair of the company founder Mr. Bill Gates, which occurred in the year "2000".

The Board of the Italian oil giant has, in these 20 long years, a totally different posture from the position of the Microsoft’s Board in relation to its former Chairman, Mr. Gates.

My "ethical fight" with Eni completes two decades in August 2021. In all these years, four different Chairmans and three different CEOs have been contacted by me. But, Eni’s Board did not analyze my case despite the evidences and the proofs presented by me.

In November 2020, Eni requested a "proposal for amicable settlement", confirmed by the Italian Ambassador in Brazil. But, the company was silent ... It did not say "yes" and it did not make a "counterproposal" as determined by "good practices" in commercial or judicial relations. It did not even answered the questions asked by an #Eni "critical shareholder" in May 2021! Eni did the same thing at the AGM 2020.

Some of the questions won't stay silent: What is the purpose of Eni's Code of Ethics? How are the Stakeholders' complaints investigated? Why doesn't the Board of Eni fulfill one of its main roles: to be a "Guardian of Ethics"?

Eni... This is why!

This is why I reported a millionaire scheme of corruption at Eni’s Brazilian subsidiary in 2001.

This is why I am a whistleblower!

This is why I lost my job in reprisal because of those I had reported.

This is why I have, in the past 20 long years, written to four different Chairmen and three different CEOs so that the Board of the company could analyze my case.

This is why I’ve been trying, for almost two decades, to rescue and restore my name, my honor and my reputation unfairly depreciated by the Italian oil giant.

This is why I was a victim of my own whistleblowing! 

This is why I was never able to go back to the corporate market, because I am now in a “black list”.

This is why I lost the opportunity to enjoy my retirement when I grow old.

And this is why I would do it all over again!

Whistleblower

"If you want to know what an organization truly believes ethically, look at how they treat their whistleblowers"

by David Colapinto

I am unstoppable!

Italian oil giant Eni... You can believe it... I am unstoppable!!!

And I will never give up trying to rescue and restore my name, my honor and my reputation unfairly, machiavellically and cowardly depreciated by your executives!

Read more about my 19 years fight story with Eni in this Blog. 

Eni & Me: Money Heist!

"Right now, they think they can only win. There’s only one way to avoid it. To face them.

Listen… In this world, everything is weighed on a simple pair of scales: what you can win and what you can lose. And right now… They think they have nothing to lose. And when you think you have nothing to lose, you get stronger. Well… We will… Show them… How much they have… To lose!"

by The Professor (Money Heist)

#WhistleblowerLivesMatterToo

Read more in this Blog about my 19 years fight with the Italian oil giant Eni to rescue and restore my name, my honor and my reputation that were unjustly buried by the company.

Eni & Me: the truth an the lie

Have you ever heard about the "Truth coming out of her well"? It is a painting from 1896 by Jeans-Léon Gérôme, a french painter and sculptor.

This work is linked to a "parable of the century" that says that, on a beautiful day, the truth and the lie met. And the lie told truth: "Today is a beautiful day! Isn't it?". The truth sighed, looked at the sky and agreed, because the day was, indeed, wonderful.

And they began to take a walk, and they walked together for a long time, until they reached the side of a well. The lie then tried the water and told truth: "The water is great! How about we have a bath together?". The truth was a little suspicious, but decided to try the water only to find out the water was very inviting. Then they undressed and began to have a bath.

Suddenly, in a sneaky way, the lie got out of the water, put on the truth's clothes and ran away. When the truth realized, it came out of the well furious and ran around trying to find the lie and get her clothes back.

The truth, then, ran naked through the streets, making its way through the people, who looked away from it with despise, anger and shame. And the poor truth, after running for a long time and searching in vain for its clothes, returned naked to the well and disappeared forever to hide her shame in the well's waters.

And since that day, the lie has been traveling around the world dressed in the truth's clothes, satisfying the needs of society because it has realized that the world has no desire to find the naked truth.

But there is another ending to this parable, that says: when the truth returned to the well, it refused to dress in the clothes of the lie and, because it had nothing to be ashamed of, the truth began to walk naked through the streets and villages. And that is why, since then, in the eyes of many people it is easier to accept the lie dressed as the truth than the bare truth.

Which ending of the story do you prefer?

Eni doesn't like whistleblowers!

Today is World Whistleblowing Day! #WWBD2017

The Italian oil giant Eni doesn't like whistleblowers, it especially doesn't like me!

I need to be fair with Eni

In all these years, I've always said that the Italian oil giant demanded in Justice that the Brazilian Business Ethics Institute and I pay an indemnity of 30 million Euro.

But, I need to be fair with Eni. Actually, I was mistaken! The demanded indemnity is "just" 15 million Euro!!!


Note - Get to know:

a) "summary" of my 16 years story against Eni

b) "all the details" of my story with more than 50 supporting documents.

c) "3 versions of Eni" about my dismissal.

The red light is lit for the investors of Eni

Activist groups raise concerns over governance at Italian oil giant Eni ahead of ESG presentation

Concern grows over Karina Litvack’s removal from board committee

Leading activist groups have said the recent replacement of corporate governance expert Karina Litvack at Italian oil and gas giant Eni’s Control and Risk Committee was “worrying and troubling”, calling on investors to demand a “clear rationale” for her removal.

Litvack, the former Head of Governance and Sustainable Investment at F&C Asset Management, who joined the board of Eni in 2014, was removed from the company’s board-level Control and Risk Committee earlier this year, though she remains on the board.

The company cited “ongoing investigations related to alleged conspiracy against the company, reported by the press”. Earlier this month, the company appointed Diva Moriani, an executive with Milan-based industrial group Intek, to take Litvack’s place on the committee.

“Eni’s zeal in replacing Litvack is astonishing, considering that both the company’s CEOClaudio Descalzi and its chief development officer Roberto Casula are under investigation, since September 2014, in a case of alleged international corruption in Nigeria for the acquisition of the (Nigerian oil field) OPL 245 concession and for which an alleged bribe of as much as $1.1bn would have been paid”, said Mauro Meggiolaro ofFondazione Banca Etica, the group for Italian ethical banking.

Eni denies any illegal conduct in the matter and says it is cooperating with the Milan prosecutor’s office; it has said it is “confident that the correctness of its actions will emerge during the course of the investigation”. In May last year Eni said an audit by an independent US law firm into the OPL 245 case found no evidence of illegal conduct.

Meggiolaro noted that Eni’s chief upstream officer Antonio Vella had also been sent to trial for alleged bribery in Algeria on July 27. Eni said at the time that it “continues to deny any illegal conduct and is confident that this will be ascertained in court proceeding”.

Meggiolaro said: “Nobody in the company has been proposed to replace him. Eni’s behaviour in the Litvack case is even more worrying if we consider that so little is known about the investigation in which Litvack would be involved, while we know much more about the investigations on Descalzi and Casula and on the trial involving the chief upstream officer Vella.”

UK-based group ShareAction said investors will be troubled by the lack of information given on Litvack’s removal, “particularly in the context of investigations into senior executives at the company.”

Chief Executive Catherine Howarth said: “Ms Litvack was elected by shareholders, no doubt in part because of her own strong track record on corporate governance; her removal is clearly a concern, and investors should demand a clear rationale for this decision.”

Separately, Eni was this week removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) following a yearly review process in which its score was deemed “not good enough” for staying in the indices, said a spokeswoman for RobecoSam, the Swiss company that develops and updates the indices. The Italian group has been removed from both the global and European indices, she confirmed, calling it a “normal deletion”.

RobecoSam said while companies could choose not to respond to the questionnaire which forms the basis of the indices, it could not choose to not be a part of the indices. In such cases, RobecoSam would analyse the company based on publicly available information.

Standard Ethics, a London-based independent sustainability ratings agency, said it was also in the process of reviewing Eni’s rating. Director Filippo Cecchi added: “We need to understand if they followed the procedures in line with the best practice in governance.”

According to reports in the Italian media earlier this summer, Litvack is one of Eni’s independent directors being investigated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Syracuse in Sicily for defamation of Descalzi. As previously stated, Responsible Investor is in contact with the Italian authorities and is currently attempting to substantiate these reports.

Litvack is a non-executive independent director nominated by a group of Italian and foreign institutional investors.

Massimo Menchini, director of corporate governance at Assogestioni – the Italian asset management industry body – said: “The corporate governance of the Italian listed companies and the role of the independent minority directors are very important for both Assogestioni and the Italian Investment Managers Committee.”

“In line with the Italian Stewardship Code and the EFAMA [European Fund and Asset Management Association] Stewardship Code, the Italian and foreign institutional investors are monitoring the situation and its evolutions,” he added.

Eni declined to comment, directing queries to the “judicial authority”. Litvack herself also declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Eni is livestreaming an ESG presentation on sustainable energy from Paris tomorrow at which Descalzi and other senior managers will present the firm’s ‘Integrated Model’ to investors.

It comes as Eni has agreed on a series of renewable energy projects in North Africa. In Egypt, its first project will be a 50 MWp photovoltaic plant in Sinai “in line with Eni’s vision for a low-carbon future”. In Algeria it has reached a strategic agreement with state-owned Sonatrach; the first fruits of this will be a 10MW photovoltaic plant in the Bir Rebaa North (BRN) field.

by Raji Menon | September 29th, 2016


Read more:

a) Eni's Board of Director approves the replacement of a Director in the Control and Risk Committee

b) Luigi Zingales investigated in the conspiracy at Eni