Trafigura’s Ex-COO Defends ‘Inspirational’ Founder at Swiss Bribe Trial

(Bloomberg) — Mike Wainwright, Trafigura Group’s ex-chief operating officer who’s on trial in Switzerland accused of corruption, has defended the trading house’s late founder Claude Dauphin as an “inspirational person.”

Dauphin, a totemic figure in the commodity trading industry who died in 2015, has featured extensively in two major corruption cases against Trafigura this year, prompting a rare public row about his legacy.

In March, the company admitted that he had approved bribe payments in Brazil as part of an agreement with the US Department of Justice — prompting a furious reaction from Dauphin’s son, who accused the company of using him as a scapegoat.

In the case currently being heard at the federal criminal court in Bellinzona, prosecutors allege Dauphin played a key role in bribing an Angolan official for oil deals. 

Wainwright, who is charged alongside Trafigura’s Dutch parent company and two other individuals, was asked about his relationship with Dauphin in court on Tuesday. Trafigura, Wainwright and the other defendants deny the bribery charges at the Swiss trial. 

“Claude was the CEO, the boss of the company. I would say he was an inspirational person and a genius in managing people,” Wainwright said during testimony. “He gave people opportunity and knew how to motivate people to do better. He was a good person.”

Responding to evidence from the Angolan official, Paulo Gouveia Junior, that Dauphin had promised to pay him in exchange for helping to resolve a debt owed to Trafigura by Angola’s state oil company, Wainwright said, “I don’t believe Mr. Dauphin would pay Paulo Junior any money.”

Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, the Brazilian trader who ran Trafigura’s Angolan oil business that is at the heart of the case, was the focus of much of the first two days of the trial. Trafigura unsuccessfully sought to have his evidence thrown out.

Asked of his impressions of Ferraz, Wainwright was less complimentary. Ferraz was “an entrepreneur” whom “Mr. Dauphin and others wanted to actively bring into the business.”

“He was a genuine person – or at least that’s what I thought,” he said.

The trial continues on Wednesday, with Wainwright expected to resume his testimony.

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