On March 19, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a report detailing findings of a two-year investigation into alleged environmental crimes and human rights violations by the Colombia state-owned oil company Ecopetrol. The report relies heavily on the Iguana Papers, a trove of internal Ecopetrol documents provided by whistleblower Andrés Olarte Peña, a former employee of Ecopetrol. Olarte’s allegations against Ecopetrol are also detailed in new reporting by the BBC.
Washington D.C.-based whistleblower firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto (KKC) announced that Olarte, a client of the firm, had filed a whistleblower disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that Ecopetrol, a publicly traded company, violated U.S. securities laws by, among other things, misleading shareholders and the public about environmental risk and pollution by failing to disclose hundreds of incidents which impacted the environment and/or humans.
“Today’s EIA report, the culmination of a two-year investigation, clearly substantiates the allegations laid out by Mr. Olarte against Ecopetrol,” said Michael Kohn, a founding partner at KKC. “The ball is now in the SEC’s court. Ecopetrol needs to be held accountable for misleading the public about its litany of environmental abuses.”
Ecopetrol is the largest company in Columbia. The Columbian state holds 88.49% of the company’s shares with annual revenues of Ecopetrol accounting for roughly 10% of the government’s income.
The Iguana Papers provided by Olarte allegedly contain thousands of documents including emails, presentations, internal briefs, third party reports, and databases.
According to the EIA report, practices of Ecopetrol revealed by its investigation into the Iguana Papers “include weaponized opacity; routine environmental violations and associated cover-ups; targeted surveillance and retaliation against socio-environmental leaders; obstruction and undue influence over regulators; use of national security forces to achieve corporate priorities and territorial control; and convergence of interests with paramilitary armed groups – all while misleading shareholders and the broader public about the company’s environmental and social track record.”
Environmental violations detailed in the EIA report include the venting and flaring of methane gas, including near populated areas as well as the contamination of wetlands with toxic substances that pose a significant threat to the region’s biodiversity and the survival of several endangered species.
According to the EIA, Ecopetrol “may have failed to report publicly or to its shareholders an average of 89%of the environmental damages it was aware of.”
Olarte alleges that Ecopetrol’s misleading public statements and omissions relating to environmental and societal harms are in violation of U.S. securities laws. In recent year, the SEC has made environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues a major enforcement focus.
Through the SEC Whistleblower Program, whistleblowers may report anonymously and qualified whistleblowers, individuals who voluntarily report original information that leads to a successful enforcement action, are eligible for monetary awards.
The SEC Whistleblower Program is transnational in reach, meaning that whistleblowers do not need to be U.S. citizens nor located in the U.S. and violations can occur anywhere across the globe if they fall under SEC jurisdiction.
Further Reading:
Oil giant’s leaked data reveals ‘awful’ pollution
Crude Lies: Colombia’s Oil Industry Hidden Impacts on People, Biodiversity, and Climate
