Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Trafigura CEO Jeremy Weir met today in Yerevan and, according to Pashinyan’s office, discussed “issues related to cooperation in the mining industry and the company's opportunities to implement investment projects in our Armenia.”

The government’s press release doesn’t say anything about Trafigura’s business operations or the company’s worldwide track record.

The company’s website proclaims: “it’s the world's largest suppliers of commodities and connect producers and consumers of minerals, metals and energy, reliably and responsibly.”  

Naturally, it fails to mention that the company, headquartered in Singapore, has been named or involved in several scandals since its founding in 1993.

One such scandal was the company’s role in a 2006 toxic waste dump in Ivory Coast that left up to 100,000 people with skin rashes, headaches and respiratory problems. (See The Guardian: UK authorities 'lack resources' to investigate Trafigura over toxic waste).

The Guardian writes that “Trafigura attempted to keep a report detailing its involvement secret using a super-injunction against the Guardian in 2009, which was challenged and ultimately defeated.

The investigative news outlet The Public Eye, in 2016, published an article (Dirty Diesel: Dirty business with toxic fuels) summarizing the results of its investigation showing how traders – including Trafigura – prepared and sold "African quality" toxic fuel to Africa, containing high levels of sulfur that causes particulate matter pollution, damaging human health.

In December 2023, The Wall Street Journal published an article (Switzerland Charges Trafigura and a Former Top Executive with Bribery) about a Swiss   investigation that led to charges against the company and a former top official of arranging €4.3 million of bribes to an Angolan government official representing a subsidiary of Sonagol, Angola's state oil company, between 2009 and 2011.

This is a partial list of the Transfigura “scandals” covered by various worldwide news outlets over the years.

There’s always more to the story than governments and corporations would have the public believe or are prepared to divulge.