Leaked records show that Bernard de Laguiche hid Solvay's shares in offshore accounts due to the company's water pollution claims in Italy and the United States.

On a cold day in December 2005, a laboratory analyst named Pietro Mancini sneaked into the basement of an aging chemical plant in Spineta Marengo, a small town in northern Italy, where he found something strange: a wall And there was a layer of yellow dust on the floor, and it was obvious to the left that behind it was the melting snow that had flooded the room.

In the storage room of another building, he found sludge seeping from a crack in the skirting board—also yellow. He took a sample. A test showed that the substance is rich in hexavalent chromium, a heavy metal known to cause cancer.

When Mancini complained that the health of the workers was threatened, his factory manager and the head of the laboratory played down the risk, and Mancini later testified. "They told me not to worry... it's not my business," he said.

In its nearly 120-year history, this Italian factory has produced a variety of toxic products, including synthetic dyes and the insecticide DDT. The hazardous chemicals involved in the production are buried on site and leaked into the groundwater. The factory later started using fluorochemicals (also toxic) to make heat-resistant plastics and non-stick and waterproof coatings for cookware and fabrics.

In 2001, the new owner, Belgian chemical giant Solvay SA, promised to clean up the site and prevent leaks. The company manager working under the designer of the acquisition, a senior Solvay executive named Bernard de Laguiche, should be responsible for overseeing the operation and reporting its progress to the Italian authorities.

However, cleaning and maintenance are lagging behind. Based on witness testimony and documents seized by Italian investigators and subsequently reviewed by the International Federation of Investigative Journalists, company employees and contractors did not disclose the problem to the authorities, but submitted reports that minimized pollution and its potential harm.

In 2008, nearly three years after Mancini discovered the storage room, environmental inspectors found hexavalent chromium in a well near the factory 40 times the legal limit. The local authorities declared a state of public health emergency.

Italian prosecutors eventually brought criminal charges against more than two dozen people, including Solvay executives and former owners of the factory, accusing them of deliberately poisoning groundwater and failing to clean the site.

Among the accused: de Laguiche, a member of Solvay's founding family. He has promoted the purchase of troubled factories in Europe and the United States and other fluoride-using factories, aiming to enable Solvay to compete with industry leaders DuPont and its famous Teflon products on a global scale. The factory acquisition was a success for his company.

Confidential records show that shortly before and shortly after the allegations were made, de Laguiche and his immediate family, with the help of a well-known offshore service provider and Swiss consultant, transferred assets worth more than US$50 million to Singapore and New Zealand In the trust fund.

These documents, known as Pandora Documents, were leaked to the International League of Investigative Journalists and shared with hundreds of news organizations. They revealed the massive flow of money to tax havens from wealthy and powerful people beyond the reach of tax officials and law enforcement agencies, as well as unprecedented details about the white-collar professionals who helped them do this.

Records show that the list of people who invested funds in offshore companies and trusts includes well-known executives of chemical companies accused of serious violations of environmental laws in countries such as India and Russia.

The middle class and the poor pay for everything because the rich have found a way not to pay a fair share

In the case of the de Laguiche family, the hidden wealth includes multi-million-dollar shares in Solvay, which owns a chemical plant with long-standing pollution problems. Records show that some of their assets were transferred from Switzerland, and Switzerland is improving its transparency standards, prompting financial advisers to recommend more private places.

Over the past two decades, dozens of Solvay workers and people living near the Solvay factory have sued the company for water and soil pollution, loss of farmland, and a series of diseases including mesothelioma. Dermatoma is a cancer caused by asbestos. ICIJ's review of public records found that during this period, the company had paid at least $74 million in court damages for violating environmental regulations. The company said it has spent more than $55 million on cleaning contaminated areas around the world.

Eric Kades, a professor at the William and Mary School of Law who specializes in trust and wealth inequality, said: "It is the middle class and the poor who pay everything, because the rich have found a way to not pay a fair share. ." 

Dragish was later acquitted. He declined to comment on legal cases and family asset management, but said he will not transfer wealth overseas in response to Italian investigations or tax avoidance. 

He wrote in an email to ICIJ: "I have always managed my family assets in good faith, and fulfilled all reporting and other obligations to tax authorities and market regulators, while strictly abiding by Solvay's trading guidelines. "

After Mancini filed a formal complaint with the local health authorities, the laboratory and storage room of the Italian factory were closed. He was later fired. He sued and reached a settlement with Solvay, but the amount was not disclosed.

In 2015, doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his right kidney.  

Solvay said that Mancini was fired "for legitimate reasons," but did not provide more details.

The company stated in a letter that Solvay is “committed to maintaining the highest standards of safe and sustainable operations” and “has taken important remedial measures in accordance with [its] standards and environmental commitments over the years.”

"Solvay (whether its factory personnel or external consultants) has never tampered with or minimized the level of pollution."

Solvay is publicly traded on the Paris and Brussels stock exchanges. It is one of the world's largest producers of chemicals and plastics, with 110 industrial bases in 64 countries/regions, and sales of 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Its products include high-strength plastics used in spinal implants and airplanes.   

The company’s history can be traced back to two enterprising Belgian brothers Ernest and Alfred Solvay. They are science enthusiasts and self-taught industrialists. They obtained a patent for a method of processing soda ash in 1863. A compound used to make glass and soap, and to bleach fabric and paper. Its food-grade variant, baking soda, is a staple food in supermarkets.   

From the beginning, the company has attached great importance to family relations and prudence. "Around the cradle of the new company, the Solvay family has formed a closely integrated'family'," the company's official history declared in the Pandora documents. This history quotes the early family motto: "Life is happy, life is hidden."

In the 1980s, the family-owned group founded Solvac, a holding company registered in Belgium that is still Solvay's largest shareholder today.  

More than 2,300 descendants of the Solvay brothers and their original collaborators own shares in Solvac, which are now controlled by their sixth-generation family.

De Laguiche, 62, is an important member of the Solvay family. He was educated at top business schools in Switzerland and Brazil, and has French and Brazilian citizenship.

De Laguiche started working for Solvay in 1987. A photo of his Brussels office in 2013 shows a black and white portrait of his great-great-grandfather Alfred Solvay next to him.  

In the interview, he downplayed the role of family relationships in his success.  

“It’s my education that helps me, with great emphasis on hard work and meritocracy,” he said in the profile of the trade publication Trends, which had named him the Chief Financial Officer of the Year in Belgium. "When I first started, the role of family was very small."

The milestone in his career came in 2000, when de Laguiche was responsible for the $1.2 billion acquisition of Ausimon, the Spinetta Marengo chemical plant and seven other troubled Italian owners.

The deal expanded Solvay's product portfolio in one fell swoop to include a synthetic rubber, the brands Tecnoflon and Fluorolink, a surface treatment that makes glass and ceramics waterproof and waterproof, allowing the company to directly compete with DuPont and other chemical giants.

"This is the most important investment in Solvay's history," de Laguiche said in a press release celebrating the completion of the transaction.

But through the acquisition, Solvay also solved many of the factory's problems.

A brick wall separates the Spinetta Marengo factory from the town’s approximately 6,000 residential area, which is famous for one of Napoleon’s most famous victories. Dozens of trucks criss-cross the narrow streets. The constant hum of the factory machinery overlaps the church bell several times a day.  

This plant is both a blessing and a threat. It has brought jobs and stable salaries to generations of workers. But long-term residents still remember how the acid rain caused by the factory’s previous operations killed the vegetation of the local dealership and corroded the car body in the 1990s.

A 2016 study by the regional environmental protection agency found that factory workers are at increased risk of dying from lung cancer and other diseases, and exposure to toxic chemicals (including some solvents still in use today) may be the culprit. 

Internal records seized by Italian investigators show that shortly after Solvay acquired the plant in 2001, de Laguiche went to regular meetings, which included the head of the health and environmental safety department of the Spinetta Marengo department. The two executives who were in charge of negotiating site cleanup with the Italian environmental authorities reported directly to Dragis.  

At the meeting, de Laguiche and other executives also discussed a recently discovered problem: workers' exposure to fluorine-containing compounds. These compounds are also known as perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which belong to the category of more than 4,000 "forever" chemical substances that do not decompose in the natural environment.

These chemicals are known to cause cancer in animals, but there are few published studies on human health effects.  

Records show that at a meeting in January 2004, de Laguiche's subordinates reported the results of the blood screening of factory workers for perfluorooctanoic acid (also known as PFOA), an eternal chemical.  

One of the tested employees, Daniele Ferrarazzo, started working at the factory in the mid-1990s to pay for his degree in music therapy. He told ICIJ that he stayed because of the high salary and work arrangement that allowed him to pursue his passion during off-duty hours.  

A few years after producing PFOA polymers for non-stick cooking, Ferrara moved to a research department to test new fluorine-based products, where he met Sonny Alessandrini. Colleagues became friends.

In an interview in Italian, Ferrarazzo and Alessandrini said that they witnessed yellow sludge seeping from the skirting board and evidence of exposure to other toxins. They said that their unit’s ventilation system was inadequate, causing them to breathe harmful gases for many years.

There is no uniform standard for the unsafe level of PFOA in the human body. But according to the laboratory hired by Solvay, Ferrarazo's blood test showed that its concentration was 900 times the normal safety standard. 

The two friends felt isolated and scared. Ferrarazzo and Alessandrini say that the fear of losing their jobs imposes a norm of silence among workers on the factory floor, making it difficult for them to share their concerns. 

"One day, someone said to me:'What if I lose my job?'" Ferrazzo recalled. "I said:'What would you do if you had cancer?'"

In February 2008, Ferrarazzo and Alessandrini decided to take action, and their tests also showed elevated toxin levels. They filed a formal complaint with the local occupational safety agency, claiming that the factory had serious safety problems. They wrote: "We can no longer allow this multinational company to put us and other Spinetta residents in a situation where we must exchange our health for job opportunities."  

Alexandrini was later fired for what the company lawyer called "obstructive behavior" and "disobedience." The company said he refused to transfer to another department. Alexandrini said he has good reasons to oppose this move: he fears that he will be exposed to higher levels of toxic chemicals in the new unit. Ferrarazo said he was asked to resign and receive severance pay. 

Solvay said the two workers were "fired for good reason." Court records show that the company repaired the ventilation system after workers complained.

After being fired, Alessandrini was diagnosed with trichoepithelioma, a rare type of skin cancer. Alexandrini later testified that his doctor told him that one possible cause was exposure to chemicals at work.  

Alexandrini struggled to find a stable job. He said that worrying about the health of their toddlers, he and his partner bought bottled water to drink, but they "unfortunately" continued to use tap water for cooking and bathing to save money, he said.   

Since then, some PFAS have been associated with human thyroid hormone disorders, liver and kidney cancer, and other fatal diseases. Solvay no longer uses the type of PFAS found in the blood of workers.  

The company stated that “long-term medical monitoring of employees shows that there is no correlation between occupational exposure to PFAS-related pathological effects.” It did not provide data to support this claim on grounds of confidentiality.

When an unrelated inspection near a closed sugar factory in May 2008 found alarming levels of carcinogenic chemicals in several wells, the factory's pollution problem suddenly appeared in public view. The authorities traced the source back to the Solvay factory three miles away.

"We got reliable evidence of pollution and its scale," Alberto Maffiotti, the head of the city's environmental agency at the time, recalled in an interview with ICIJ. 

The inspectors also found that dozens of nearby families were using water drawn from a well directly below the Solvay factory for their vegetable gardens. The coffee machines in the factory also use the same water source, which Alessandrini and his colleague Pietro Mancini often use.

Beginning in May 2008, the environmental crime department of the Italian Gendarmerie Gendarmerie searched the office of Solvay Solexis, the company's polymer department, near Milan. They seized dozens of documents found in the basement of the office, as well as the e-mails of about 200 employees.  

A search by investigators found two sets of environmental records, one for internal use and the other for display to the authorities. One of the police officers later testified that in the “official” scenario, potentially harmful data on arsenic found in the soil near the factory was excluded.   

Investigators also found that Solvay employees often delete investigation results related to hazardous chemicals from laboratory analysis reports provided to inspectors.

In October 2009, prosecutors filed a groundbreaking criminal lawsuit that charged 39 people, including the former owner of the plant, current and former Solvay health and environmental safety officials in Italy, especially senior managers in Brussels. 

Dragish, who was promoted to Solvay's chief financial officer, was accused of causing water and soil pollution in Spinetamarengo and failing to clean up the pollution. These allegations could be sentenced to up to 18 years in prison.  

Solvay stated in the financial documents that it "strongly opposed" these allegations.  

Dragish declined to comment on the case, saying he "has no right" to answer questions about the matter.

Leaked documents show that in the summer of 2009, Dragis and his family began to transfer some of their assets from Europe to several offshore entities as the Italian authorities investigated Solvay's handling of the cleanup.

In June, the financial adviser working for the family established a trust in New Zealand, which will eventually receive Solvay shares worth $11.3 million and Solvay dividends of $412,000. Bernard de Laguiche is one of the beneficiaries. The document does not specify who instructed the consultant to create the trust. 

At the time, New Zealand provided anonymity and tax exemption to foreigners who established trusts there. The country does not require trust managers, who often hire professionals and are the only party listed in New Zealand’s official records, to disclose the true owner of the trust or the assets it holds.     

Leaked records show that in July, Dragish’s two sisters met with wealth managers and lawyers in Basel, Switzerland. The founder of Singapore's offshore service specialist Asiaciti Trust was also present.

The family’s French lawyers used a whiteboard to outline how Asiaciti helped family members transfer assets from Swiss bank accounts to Singapore-registered trusts and Singapore banks. The lawyer stated that these changes will be made to “avoid disclosure of information in Switzerland”, which will make its notorious secret banking system more public.   

Like New Zealand, Singapore at the time provided non-residents with confidentiality, full tax exemption of foreign sourced income, and creditor protection. In addition, Singapore has not yet adopted the international standards set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that require countries to share tax information with foreign authorities. (Singapore complied in 2014; New Zealand undertook a comprehensive reform of its trust law in 2017.)

The minutes of the meeting showed that a cousin and a wealth adviser of the family "expressed a desire to move forward quickly."

Asiaciti did not comment on any of its customers and stated that the company complies with the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates.

In 2011, de Laguiche transferred at least US$57 million in Solvay stocks and other assets to two new Singapore-registered trusts established by Asiaciti. One of them was named "Cagibi" after his Brazilian farm. Each trust owns a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. His wife and two children are beneficiaries.

A trust is a legal agreement designed to protect personal assets or reduce their tax burden.​​ The trustee transfers the legal ownership of assets-stocks, cash, and real estate-to another party, usually a professional company like Asiaciti. The company controls assets on behalf of the beneficiaries. In practice, the original owner can retain a certain degree of control. Because of the hierarchical relationship between the actual owner and his assets, trusts are sometimes used for tax evasion and money laundering.

De Laguiche told ICIJ that he did not set up a trust "for tax purposes" and did not receive any tax benefits.

According to the leaked documents, the British Virgin Islands company controlled by his Cagibi Trust Cagibi Investments Ltd. regularly participates in Solvay's shareholders meeting and votes on company decisions through proxies.  

The proxy statement informs the company that people other than shareholders will vote, but it does not mention de Laguiche. They identified the BVI company as a shareholder. 

De Laguiche stated that he reported his transaction as required.

Securities rules in the United States and Europe usually require executives to disclose their holdings and trading information to prevent insider trading and conflicts of interest. However, a spokesperson said that European privacy laws do not allow the Belgian securities regulator-Solvay's headquarters and place of listing-to release insider trading information prior to 2016. There is no information on whether de Laguiche announced its ownership to Solvay or regulators.  

Solvay said the company "will not comment on the personal financial status of specific Solvay shareholders when the information is not public."

Leaked records show that two other Solvay insiders also own a shell company registered in a confidential jurisdiction. Former Solvay director Guy De Seliers used a shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands to own a house in Dorset, England. de Selliers told ICIJ that the property had been disclosed to the UK tax authorities and was later transferred to a UK company. He added that he owns shares in Solvac and Solvay through offshore trusts.

Hubert de Wangen is also a former Solvay director. He holds inherited Solvay shares in a Singapore trust with a listing value of US$10 million. He said that his financial situation is "transparent" and that he complies with the tax regulations in Switzerland where he lives.

“Of course environmental issues will be discussed during the conference,” said Dewangen, who worked at Solvay before 2008. "The board of directors has always collectively supported the executive committee's decision to resolve these issues."

In January 2012, de Laguiche and other shareholders celebrated a milestone: Solvay shares began trading in Paris on the famous Euronext (now known as Euronext).  

In a crowded small room outside the stock exchange, de Laguiche celebrated the listing with a smile on his face.

The proxy statement submitted three months after the ceremony showed that the anonymous company indirectly controlled by de Laguiche and other members of the family held at least 387,027 Solvay shares through an offshore structure established by Asiaciti, which was valued at more than US$43 million at the time. 

In early 2007, pediatric surgeon Maria Chiara Rossi moved to Spinetta Marengo to start a family with her partner. About two years later, they had their first son, Leone.    

The Solvay factory is only a few hundred feet away from their home, and Rossi can see it every time the window is opened. At night, the brightly lit factory is like a postcard of the Manhattan skyline.

Rossi said she was unaware of the "chrome emergency" announced by the authorities shortly after Leone's birth. Then she worked shifts in the city hospital, often keeping the boy nearby, he played in the garden, and his grandfather was taking care of lettuce and other vegetables.

Rossi realized that something went wrong when her son started to get sick with an unusual frequency within five months of his second birthday. She took Lyon to see a doctor, and in June 2011, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Rossi, who had just given birth to his second child, moved to Turin, about 60 miles away, and Leone began to receive two years of treatment. (He is healthy now, Rossi said.)

"I think the factory is under control, just like any factory," Rossi said. "It wasn't until later that I realized the seriousness of the problem and how many workers and families have suffered."  

A 2019 study by local health authorities later found that people living within two miles of the Spinetta Marengo factory are 30% more likely to develop leukemia, Parkinson's disease, and stomach or kidney cancer than the general population. Children from this area have been found to be more susceptible to neurological diseases.  

Rossi signed the Solvay criminal case under a clause of Italian law that allowed civil plaintiffs in criminal cases to join dozens of residents, civil organizations, local governments, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.  

I think the factory is controlled, just like any factory. Later I realized the seriousness of the problem and how many workers and families have suffered.

The trial started at the Alexandria City Court in April 2013 and lasted for more than two years. Solvay executives did not attend.

Rossi recalled that the court was located in a building with marble floors during World War II, which looked like a movie set. She said: "We poor people say,'We are sick,' while on the other hand, about two dozen lawyers look perfect in their robes."

The prosecutor argued that de Laguiche and other executives had been “at their command post” from day one and knew or should have been aware of environmental issues at the factory.  

De Laguiche’s lawyer stated that his client should not be held responsible for the pollution in the Italian factory and accused the prosecutor of trying to incorrectly describe him as a “criminal attacking public health”.  

According to the report of a conference call with analysts discussing earnings in the second quarter, de Laguiche left Solvay's management team in 2013 after a 26-year career to "pursue some personal projects" in Brazil, where he owns a farm. De Laguiche was later appointed as the "day-to-day management" director in charge of Solvac, a family-controlled holding company and Solvay's largest shareholder, and he continues to serve as a member of Solvay's board of directors.

Leaked records show that his move to Brazil triggered a change in his offshore investment strategy.

In a confidential email, an official from Asiaciti reported that de Laguiche's tax consultant believed that Singapore Trust was "disadvantaged" in Brazil. Dragish wanted to get out.

  Sign up to receive all Pandora Papers news, delivered directly to your inbox.

Records prepared by the company and sent to the Brazilian tax authorities show that at the time the trust was closed, his assets (including Solvay shares) were worth approximately US$51 million.

Although he terminated the Singapore Trust, de Laguiche retained his two BVI investment companies. He transferred their multi-million dollar investment portfolio from a Singapore bank account to a Swiss bank account.

He then used one of the companies to pay a Swiss real estate company and bought a $7 million six-bedroom holiday home with a large garden and two parking lots in La Punt, a medieval village at the foot of the Swiss Alps. field. (According to the records of the British Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands company was dissolved in 2021.)

In December 2015, an Italian court ruled that two former executive subordinates of de Laguiche and the Spinetta Marengo factory manager were guilty of causing environmental damage. Also convicted was the manager who worked for the former owner of the plant. Solvay was ordered to pay approximately $430,000 in damages to Spinetta Marengo residents and other civil parties.

In a 350-page judgment, the court concluded that there was “no real or serious intervention” to eliminate the source of pollution and repair the leak that caused the toxin to spread outside the site.  

De Laguiche and two other executives were acquitted. The judge said that in Italy, as in other countries, the burden of proof for criminal convictions is high-prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to show that executives knew to cover up the facts.

In 2019, the Italian Supreme Court upheld the verdict against Solvay and his managers. The court stated that the company “should take remedial measures to avoid danger to people and the environment”.  

Solvay said it has installed a system to control and filter the daily runoff from six Olympic swimming pools at the Spinetta Marengo plant. The company also stated that it has spent more than $30 million on clean-up work and expects to spend millions more.

In the arbitration claim submitted to the International Commercial Court, Solvay stated that the Italian company that sold the factory to it misrepresented the scope of the environmental conditions on site. In June of this year, Solvay said it had won a $107 million award.

About 4,000 miles away, in Paulsboro, New Jersey, the swings and slides of the children’s playground along the Delaware River pale in comparison with the looming exhaust pipes of an oil refinery on one side, and a tower of 10 on the other The football-sized Solvay factory area.

The plant was acquired in 2001 as part of the same transaction facilitated by de Laguiche, which placed the Spinetta Marengo plant under Solvay's control. It also uses fluorine-containing compounds to produce industrial resins used in paints and plastics. And, just like the Italian factory, it also brings pollution problems.

Supporting stories that shook the world helped us continue our Pandora Papers investigation. Your gift will be matched in U.S. dollars to U.S. dollars until December 31. Help us continue our Pandora Thesis investigation. Before December 31, your gift will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Donate now

Help us continue our Pandora Thesis investigation.

Your gift will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis until December 31.

Help us continue our Pandora Thesis investigation.

Your gift will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis until December 31.

In 2013, researchers from the environmental organization Delaware River Guardian Network discovered government records that prove that the Solvay plant has been leaking PFAS and other toxic chemicals into public water systems and private wells for many years.

After news reports of the organization’s findings caused an uproar, state officials warned that children under one year old should only drink bottled water because Paulsboro’s water supply was contaminated.

Although Solvay did not admit responsibility, the company distributed bottled water to local residents and began to study whether the factory was a source of pollution.

In 2014, three Paulsboro families sued the company in federal court in New Jersey, claiming that this put them "at greater risk of health problems." Solvay agreed to a settlement for US$2.7 million, but did not admit wrongdoing.

New Jersey regulators later ruled that Solvay and other chemical producers in other areas were responsible for the “severe pollution” of the state’s natural resources and ordered Solvay to pay more than $3 million.

After testing found that PFAS levels exceeded state guidelines, West Deptford Township closed two public wells near the plant.  

From her garden, retired librarian Marylin Quinn can see part of the inner tower of the Solvay factory. She called it a "Christmas Tree" because there was a red flag flying on it.  

Quinn often checks the drinking water reports of the township. They continue to show elevated levels of PFAS chemicals. Earlier this year, she decided to hire a plumber to install a water filter worth US$486 to remove chemicals such as PFAS. 

"The filter is my only solution at the moment," Quinn said. 

A toxicology report obtained by Consumer Reports last year indicated that Solvay has known since the early 2000s that some PFAS chemicals produced in Italy and used in New Jersey may pose health risks.  

In November last year, the State of New Jersey sued Solvay, accusing the company of failing to clean up drinking water pollution related to toxic compounds in the factory and concealing health risks from the public.

A spokeswoman for Solvay Specialty Polymers USA LLC called the state's allegations "inaccurate, too broad and baseless."  

The company stated that it is “fully committed to completing the ongoing investigation and remediation of any PFAS impact on its facilities.”

The case is being heard in the state court in Gloucester County. 

In an interview with ICIJ, he said that Pietro Mancini, now 53, has been unable to find a stable job for many years, and the Solvay funds obtained from his court settlement have not been sustained.

He now lives with his wife, daughter and dog in a seaside town on the east coast of Italy, about 300 miles from Spineta Marengo.  

The plants still haunt him. Mancini said that he often had nightmares about working in a contaminated laboratory. He said he has not fully recovered from cancer surgery. He used to swim and play tennis. He said that now he can't help feeling dizzy or tired. 

In his apartment, he pointed to the portrait of his late father, who was a carabiner. Mancini said his father taught him to expose wrongdoing without worrying about the consequences. 

"I will do it again," Mancini said of the complaint about Solvay factory conditions. "There is no one's health in my conscience." 

He recently applied for early retirement. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he cooked dinner for his wife (a caregiver) while she was busy caring for patients in the hospital.

Spinetta Marengo is "They took away 10 years of my life and part of me," he said. 

On a cold morning in February 2021, uniformed military police and prosecutors arrived at the Spinetta Marengo factory in Solvay. They confiscated the entire file archive.

In response, the company distributed a brochure to Spinetta Marengo residents and factory workers. "There is no evidence that today's Solvay factory poses a real danger to people's health and the environment," it said.

The detection of perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl substances from the Solvay plant in a water source hundreds of miles away prompted a police search.

Solvay told ICIJ that the runoff was due to "abnormal and unpredictable weather events."

Update October 6, 2021: After answering questions from ICIJ on this story on September 23, De Laguiche resigned from Solvay’s board of directors on September 24 and resigned as Solvac's managing director on September 27 Job title. His resignation was the first ICIJ partner De Tijd and Le Soir to publicly report on October 6. Dragis told the Belgian media that the resignation was due to "personal reasons."

Reporter and Asia-Europe Coordinator

Help us change the world. Get our story via email.

Help us continue our Pandora Thesis investigation.

Your gift will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis until December 31.

Help us continue our Pandora Thesis investigation.

Your gift will be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis until December 31.

1800 M Street NW, Front 1 #33019 Washington, DC 20033 USA

© 2021 — International Federation of Investigative Journalists. all rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use