Warren M. Anderson (born 1921) is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Union Carbide.
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Anderson was born in 1921 in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York, to Swedish immigrants. He was named after the American president Warren Harding. He later attended the naval pre-flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is married to Lillian Anderson.[1] They live in Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York and also own houses in Vero Beach, Florida and Greenwich, Connecticut.[1]
The Bhopal disaster took place in a plant belonging to a Union Carbide's (UCC) Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India Limited, in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India during 1984. Thousands of people died and thousands more were injured in the disaster.[2] As the UCC CEO, Anderson was charged with manslaughter by Indian authorities. He flew to India with a promise that he would not be arrested; however, Indian authorities placed him in custody. Anderson posted bail, returned to the US, and refused to return to India.
He was declared a fugitive from justice by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal on February 1, 1992, for failing to appear at the court hearings in a culpable homicide case in which he was named the chief defendant.[3] The chief judicial magistrate of Bhopal, Prakash Mohan Tiwari, issued an arrest warrant for Anderson on July 31, 2009.[4] The United States has declined to extradite him citing a lack of evidence.[5]
In August 2009, a UCC spokesperson said "Union Carbide had no role in operating the plant at the time as the factory was owned, managed and operated by employees of Union Carbide India Limited."[6] Eight former senior employees of the subsidiary were found guilty on June 7, 2010. After these convictions, a UCC spokesperson said, "All the appropriate people from UCIL – officers and those who actually ran the plant on a daily basis – have appeared to face charges."