Milan (AFP)
The oil giants Eni and Shell, implicated in a vast case of corruption in Nigeria, were acquitted Wednesday at first instance by a court in Milan, a judgment which provoked the disappointment of the NGOs at the origin of the judicial investigation .
In this resounding lawsuit, the Italian prosecution suspected the two groups of having paid $ 1.092 billion in bribes, out of a total of $ 1.3 billion disbursed in 2011, for the acquisition in Nigeria of a license to exploration of the OPL-245 offshore oil block.
The boss of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, "is rehabilitated in his professional reputation and Eni as a big company", commented the lawyer of the Italian leader, Paola Severino, after the decision of the 7th chamber of the court of Milan.
The Milan public prosecutor's office had requested in July sentences of eight years in prison for corruption against Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni, boss of Eni at the time of the incriminated facts.
At the head of Eni since May 2014, Mr. Descalzi, 66, was at the time operational director general of the oil group, which is 30.33% controlled by the Italian state.
Shell for its part welcomed in a press release the court ruling: "we have always maintained that the 2011 agreement was legal, designed to resolve a ten-year legal dispute and unlock the development of the OPL-245 block" .
The prosecution had notably requested a sentence of seven years and four months in prison for Malcolm Brinded, former director general of the Exploration and Production division of Shell, and ten years for the former Nigerian Minister of Oil Dan Etete.
Mr. Etete, who is also the subject of a Nigerian arrest warrant, is still wanted in connection with this case.
"This judgment is not the last word in this scandal", reacted Barnaby Pace, of the British NGO Global Witness, one of the associations at the origin of the revelations which in 2013 led to the opening of an investigation. judicial.
He asked the Milan prosecutor's office "to consider all the options for an appeal".
Eni and Shell have always firmly opposed any corruption.
- Long-standing dispute -
The deal with the Nigerian government at the time was aimed at ending years of litigation surrounding the OPL-245 block between Shell and the Malabu company, owned by Dan Etete.
Former Minister of Oil under the regime of dictator Sani Abacha, Mr. Etete took over this block in 1998, by selling it to Malabu, a company he secretly owned.
The license was subsequently revoked by the government and transferred to Shell, then again to Malabu, giving rise to significant litigation.
According to the NGO Global Witness, the agreement resulted in the payment of $ 1.1 billion into an account in London opened by government officials - and going directly to Dan Etete - and $ 210 million to the government.
According to Global Witness, Shell, contrary to its claims, knew full well that the money would not go into the state coffers.
Two intermediaries in the case, Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, were given four-year prison sentences in 2018, in a separate trial which was also held in Milan.
"We will continue our work to hold these companies to account," warned the Italian anti-corruption NGO Re: Common.
If the two groups are currently winning in this case on a legal level, it is apparently not the same as for the financial aspect.
According to Eni, the Nigerian government has never given them a permit to start extracting oil, while the OPL-245 oil block has a production capacity of around 9 billion barrels.
"The profits never materialized, Eni and Shell have invested 2.5 billion dollars and their license will expire in May. The truth is therefore that the two companies are wronged in this matter", told AFP a door - speech of Eni.
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