Thousands of victims of one of the worst toxic dumping scandals in years could lose their hard-won settlement thanks to maneuverings by a shadowy but “influential” figure in Ivory Coast, where the dumping occurred…Up to $45 million in compensation is at stake, intended for about 30,000 victims of an oil-based sludge surreptitiously dumped around Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s capital, in 2006…[T]he money, frozen in a local bank, has been claimed by a largely self-appointed community representative named Claude Gohourou. In recent weeks, the Ivorian judiciary has sided with him, according to the London law firm Leigh Day & Company, which represents the victims.