Iguana Papers Whistleblower Files SEC Complaint Detailing Environmental Crimes by Colombia Oil Giant Ecopetrol

Today, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a bombshell report detailing massive environmental and human rights violations by the Colombia state-owned oil company Ecopetrol. The EIA investigation was initiated in response to the Iguana Papers, a cache of documents and information provided by whistleblower Andrés Olarte Peña, a former Ecopetrol employee represented by the whistleblower law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto (KKC).

Olarte has filed a whistleblower disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging securities violations by Ecopetrol, a publicly traded company. The EIA report corroborates the allegations reported in the whistleblower’s disclosure. The report details how the oil company misled shareholders and the public about environmental risk and pollution by failing to disclose hundreds of incidents that impacted the environment and/or humans. Specifically, Ecopetrol “may have failed to report publicly or to its shareholders an average of 89% of the environmental damages it was aware of.”

“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 who represents Olarte. “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.”

“Mr. Olarte demonstrated immense bravery in coming forward with these allegations; we hope that the SEC will follow up and investigate the wealth of evidence he provided to determine the harm caused to U.S. investors by Ecopetrol’s material misstatements and omissions regarding its environmental and societal record,” said Todd Yoder, a KKC partner representing Olarte alongside Kohn.

The Iguana Papers contain thousands of documents, including emails, presentations, internal briefs, third party reports, and databases, collected by Olarte over two years. One confidential database uncovered by Olarte collated over 300,000 instances of socio-environmental non-compliance located across Colombia. At the same time, another tracked over 800 instances of environmental liability caused by Ecopetrol operations (170 of which were hidden from authorities).

Based largely upon the Iguana Papers, the EIA report outlines evidence of Ecopetrol illegally venting and flaring methane gas, including near populated areas; contaminating wetlands with toxic substances which poses a significant threat to the region’s biodiversity and the survival of several endangered species; and actively targeting, surveilling and suppressing hundreds of environmental activists and individuals opposing its operations. Ecopetrol misinformed its shareholders and the investing public through misleading public statements and omissions related to these environmental and societal harms.

Olatre’s allegations against Ecopetrol are the subject of a new article and documentary by the BBC.