Dow 'with blood of Bhopal' traded via 'web of intermediaries' to avoid product ban in India

Europe Sun (ANI) Monday 13th February, 2012

Controversial London 2012 Olympics sponsors Dow Chemical Company secretly traded through a web of intermediaries to avoid a legal ban imposed on selling products in India after the Bhopal gas tragedy that killed nearly 25,000 people, it has emerged.

According to The Independent, legal documents have revealed that Dow continued to permit the unlawful practice started by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), the company responsible for the disaster, after it bought the firm company in 2001.

The multimillion-dollar sales, made possible by a web of independent intermediary companies, breached a 1992 ruling by an Indian court, which prohibited the sale of UCC products without court approval.

It was issued to compel Union Carbide-authorised officials to return to India to face criminal charges for culpable homicide relating to the 1984 gas explosion.

According to the report, the court documents showed that in 2001 Dow became central to all aspects of the trading arrangement, including setting of prices for the chemicals, cables and wires sold to India, which were ultimately to enter the country as products unconnected to Union Carbide.

The documents emerged in a US court case brought by the intermediary companies against Dow and Union Carbide for violations of anti-trust laws and breach of contract, the paper said.

According to the paper, Dow said that the documents were taken out of context.

"None of the alleged business transactions cited as violating the 1992 court order involved products or technologies that are covered by the court order which only applied to UCC properties in India. It did not apply to UCC products or technologies acquired overseas and brought into India by other separate companies," the firm said.

Locog, which has been widely criticised for awarding a seven million pounds sponsored fabric wrap around the outside of the east London Olympic stadium to Dow, declined to comment. (ANI)