In September 2006, commodities company Trafigura commissioned the Minton Report after toxic waste was dumped in Côte d’Ivoire. The internal document identified chemicals likely to be present and warned that exposure could cause burns, vomiting, respiratory injury, loss of consciousness, and death. It said the reported casualties were consistent with a significant release of hydrogen sulfide gas. The United Nations later stated that the incident affected 108,000 people. The report’s publication became a major test of whether corporate legal power could suppress evidence of environmental harm.
On 11 September 2009, Trafigura’s lawyers at Carter-Ruck obtained a secret super-injunction barring The Guardian from publishing the report and threatened other media organizations, including Norway’s public broadcaster and The Chemical Engineer. After The Guardian reported that an unnamed parliamentary question was being suppressed, online circulation triggered public backlash. Carter-Ruck agreed on 13 October to modify the order, and the injunction was lifted on 16 October 2009. The leak exposed the conflict between confidentiality tactics and public accountability, though the source text does not establish a final determination of corporate criminal liability.
