{"id":13930,"date":"2018-12-18T08:49:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T08:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13930"},"modified":"2018-12-18T08:49:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T08:49:30","slug":"malabu-scam-eni-shell-aware-of-corrupt-payments-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13930","title":{"rendered":"Malabu Scam :Eni, Shell aware of corrupt payments, Judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"main-header\">\n<div class=\"top-menu sticky-scroll-up contain-to-grid show-for-small-only\">\n<nav class=\"top-bar\" data-topbar=\"\" data-sticky_height=\"0\" data-distance=\"245\" data-options=\"sticky_on: small; back_text: Back\">An Italian judge, Giusy Barbara, found out on Monday that Eni and Royal Dutch Shell were fully aware that their 2011 purchase of Nigeria\u2019s Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL 245) would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials.<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"inner_wrapper\" class=\"inner_wrapper hide-on-mobile-menu \">\n<div class=\"row full-width\">\n<div class=\"inner_content\">\n<div class=\"row has-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"post-113471 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-oil-gas tag-eni-shell-bribe tag-italian-judge tag-malabu-scam\">\n<div class=\"row vc_row in-container\">\n<div class=\"medium-8 column left\">\n<article id=\"post-113471\" data-postid=\"113471\" data-guid=\"https:\/\/www.nan.ng\/?p=113471\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.nan.ng\/oil-gas\/malabu-scam-eni-shell-aware-of-corrupt-payments-judge-rules\/\">\n<div class=\"row collapse article-content-wrap\">\n<div class=\"small-12 medium-9 right column\">\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"post-body xt-post-content\">\nItaly\u2019s Eni and Shell bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about 1.3 billion dollars\u00a0 from Malabu Oil and Gas Limited owned by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Dan Etete, in a deal that spawned one of the oil industry\u2019s largest corruption scandals.<br \/>\nIt was alleged that about $1.1 billion of the money paid for the oil block was siphoned to agents and middlemen.<br \/>\nThe Milan judge made the comment in her written reasons for the September conviction of a Nigerian, Mr. Emeka Obi and Italian, Gianluca Di Nardo, both middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, for corruption.<br \/>\nThey were jailed for four years.<br \/>\n\u201cThe management of oil companies Eni and Shell \u2026 were fully aware of the fact that part of the $1.092 billion paid would have been used to compensate Nigerian public officials who had a role in this matter and who were circling their prey like hungry sharks,\u201d Barbara said in her reasoning.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was not mere connivance, but a conscious adhesion to a predatory project damaging the Nigerian state,\u201d she added.<br \/>\nShe also said money was given to some Eni managers.<br \/>\nObi and Di Nardo have been tried separately from Eni and Shell, which also face corruption allegations over the same deal in a hearing that is expected to drag on for months.<br \/>\nBut responding to the judge\u2019s remarks, Eni said it would analyse the remarks, noting that a fuller account of the facts and evidence surrounding the deal would emerge only from the main trial.<br \/>\nThe Italian company has previously denied any wrongdoing. Eni shares fell slightly on the judge\u2019s remarks but quickly recovered ground. Shell stock was barely changed.<br \/>\nUnder the deal, Eni and Shell jointly acquired the OPL 245 field from a company owned by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete who, the judge noted, had been put under investigation in 2003 in France for alleged money-laundering.<br \/>\nShell also said yesterday that neither Obi nor Di Nardo had worked for it, and that there was no basis to convict it or any of its former staff of alleged offences related to the oil deal.<br \/>\nEni Chief Executive, Claudio Descalzi, and four ex-Shell managers, including former Shell\u2019s Head of Upstream, Malcolm Brinded, are also accused of international corruption in the main trial.<br \/>\nThey have all denied any wrongdoing.<br \/>\nBrinded\u2019s lawyer referred Reuters\u2019 requests for comment to Shell.<br \/>\nIn her explanation, judge Barbara alleged that Shell executives, including Brinded, had known that Etete would keep a part of the purchase price for himself and use the rest to \u201cpay people,\u201d including Nigerian politicians and public officials who had helped him to take possession of the field in 1998.<br \/>\nBy <strong>NAN<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Italian judge, Giusy Barbara, found out on Monday that Eni and Royal Dutch Shell were fully aware that their 2011 purchase of Nigeria\u2019s Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL 245) would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials. Italy\u2019s Eni and Shell bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about 1.3 billion dollars\u00a0 from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}