Trafigura Is Using Late Founder as Scapegoat on Bribes, Son Says

After Trafigura last week admitted that Trafigura's former CEO Claude Dauphin personally approved bribery schemes in Brasil, his family reacts in a very exceptional public statement by means of his son, Guillaume Dauphin:

“Frankly speaking it does seem a bit fortunate to blame everything on the guy who is not there to answer,” Guillaume Dauphin said.

The public schism between Trafigura’s current management and the Dauphin family, which has eschewed publicity in the decade since the founder’s death, shows how the issue of corruption continues to reverberate through the commodity trading world.

He [...] accused Trafigura of using its late founder as a scapegoat to protect other individuals, who he did not identify.

“It would seem that Trafigura’s strategy is to make our father the sole scapegoat for all the legal issues facing the company, not so much to protect the company, but rather to protect others included in the legal cases,” he said.

Trafigura declined to comment.

Asked how his father would have dealt with the allegations if he were alive, Dauphin drew a parallel with the 2006 Probo Koala incident in Ivory Coast involving the dumping of toxic waste.

“I don’t know what our father would have done if he were alive, but I do know what he did when confronted with the Probo Koala affair in Abidjan,” Guillaume Dauphin said. “He went there himself and assumed the company’s responsibilities, which resulted in 6 months’ imprisonment, without passing the buck to any of his colleagues.”

Following this statement, if Claude Dauphin is not to blame for the current cases, who is? It looks like the noose is getting tighter and tighter around the neck of his successors. 

How long before the carefully constructed defense around the real perpetrators brakes loose? 

Go to original Bloomberg article

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