Nigeria: OPL 245 – Eni Threatens Legal Action Against Heda, Others for Defamation

By Peter Uzoho: April 14, 2021

The Italian oil major, Eni, has threatened to take legal action against the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and other critics for allegedly defaming the company over the Milan Court’s ruling on the Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245 case.

Eni, in a statement that was issued yesterday in Abuja, said it found it shocking and contrary to any principle of law that the HEDA had ignored all the facts in the Milan judgment and went about defaming the organisation, its management and the Italian Court. read more

OPL 245 LITIGATION: POLLUTING THE PROCESS

The powerful Italian energy giant Eni is leading lobbying efforts in Europe, pushing for the EU to support climate-wrecking fossil gas – all whilst on the stand in the corporate corruption trial of the decade.

We can also reveal new details surrounding the “OPL 245” trial, in which both Eni and Shell are accused of involvement in a vast bribery scheme that saw hundreds of millions of dollars funnelled to Nigerian politicians.

Key findings

Our new report finds that Eni’s CEO, who is also personally on trial and facing up to eight years in prison, was granted high level access to lobby the EU’s Energy Commissioner as recently as June 2020. read more

Anti-corruption groups write Buhari, IG, fault Adoke on OPL 245 fraud charges 

9 March 2021: By Henry Uche

An international coalition of anti-corruption groups has asked the Inspector General of Police, IG, Adamu Abubakar, to dismiss request for fresh investigation made by former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke, on the OPL 245 oil fraud. Adoke had asked the IG to investigate the source of an important email that nailed him saying it was a red herring.

The coalition made up of Re-Common, The Corner House Human & Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA) and Global Witness said a copy of the petition signed by Executive Director, Re-Common, Mr Luca Manes, was sent to President Mohammadu Buhari last week. read more

The international corruption case against Eni, Shell and some officials of the companies resumed in the Milan court on Wednesday

Italian Court Accepts Evidence Indicting Former AGF, Adoke In $1.1billion Malabu Deal

The Milan court denied Adoke’s claim that the email was not his.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK: FEB 03, 2021

An Italian court in Milan, Italy has accepted as evidence, electronic mails involving former Nigerian Attorney General of the Federation, Adoke Bello, and JPMorganChase bank officials in the Malabu oil deal. read more

FG, Shell, Agip lose bid to stop Abacha’s suit to reclaim Malabu’s OPL 245

By Eric Ikhilae, Abuja: December 22, 2020

A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected moves by the Federal Government, Shell Nigeria Exploration, Nigeria Agip Exploration Company and others to prevent the hearing of a suit seeking to reclaim the Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245 originally awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.

The suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/201/2017 was filed in the name of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd by Mohammed Sani Abacha, son of the late Head of State, Sani Abacha, who claimed to be the majority shareholder of the oil firm. read more

Nigeria Eni/Shell corruption case: Future of Eni’s CEO at stake

By Christophe Le Bec
Posted on Thursday, 24 September 2020 18:22

The highly publicised corruption trial which alleges that oil majors Eni and Shell took part in an unlawful acquisition – that of the OPL 245 oil licence in Nigeria – entered its final phase on Monday, 21 September in Milan, with the defence presenting its case.

Key business and political figures were set to go before the Italian court in relation to a Nigerian business deal dating back to the early 2000s. The corruption case is one of the largest in the oil industry’s history. read more

Malabu Oil Deal: Canadian judge dismisses suit challenging Nigeria’s grounding of Etete’s jet

September 4, 2020: Oladeinde Olawoyin

A Canadian judge on Thursday dismissed an application seeking leave to appeal the judgement that confirmed the grounding of a luxury private jet purchased by a former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete, with some of the alleged proceeds of the controversial $1.3 billion Malabu OPL245 oil deal.

The suit was filed before the court by Tibit Limited, an anonymously owned company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), claiming ownership of the jet. read more

Anti-graft groups query Nigerian Justice Minister on OPL 245 assets recovery

27 July 2020: Henry Uche

Nigeria’s Minister of Minister and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has been asked to give full disclosure of recovered assets linked to the OPL multi-billion dollar oil scam.

In a statement delivered by the Chairman of Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) Mr Olanrewaju Suraj, the charge came after the Corner House, Global Witness, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and Re-Common, launched a global campaign through a letter to the AGF Malami for transparency in the assets recovered from the scam. In the petition, the groups raised 25 critical questions for Malami. read more

Nigeria: Malabu Scandal – Activists Kick As Italy Appoints Accused Official As ENI CEO

By Oladeinde Olawoyin

21 April 2020

The Italian government has re-nominated Claudio Descalzi as Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Italy’s largest multinational company and the country’s largest foreign oil producer in Africa.

Mr Descalzi is set to maintain the leadership role despite an ongoing criminal trial over corruption allegations surrounding the billion dollar 2011 acquisition by Shell and Eni of Nigeria’s OPL 245 oil license.

Italian prosecutors allege that the $1.1bn paid by Eni and their partner Shell for the OPL 245 licence was used to pay former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete and was “intended for payment to a former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, members of the government, and other Nigerian public officials”. read more

Global Investigations Review

Dutch bar unfazed by justice minister’s “unusual” contact with Shell prosecutors

By James Thomas: 18 February 2020

Dutch lawyers seem relaxed about recent revelations that the local justice minister and public prosecutors have been in frequent contact about a bribery investigation into Shell.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Lawyers question judge’s peculiar ruling in Shell privilege case

By James Thomas: 30 October 2019

Legal experts in the Netherlands have said that a recent privilege ruling against Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell will likely not stand up in an appeals court.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Shell’s in-house lawyers not covered by privilege, court rules

By James Thomas: 25 October 2019

A Rotterdam court has ruled that Shell’s in-house lawyers are insufficiently independent from the company and cannot claim legal privilege, in a decision connected to a Dutch investigation into alleged bribery by Shell in Nigeria. read more

A Milan court has rejected a prosecution request to hear testimony from a former legal adviser of Eni who has accused the company of spying on judges…

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

MILAN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – A Milan court has rejected a prosecution request to hear testimony from a former legal adviser of Eni who has accused the company of spying on judges, offering a boost to the Italian oil firm as it fights bribery allegations over a Nigerian oil field.

The ruling removes the prospect of months of testimony voicing allegations of wrongdoing by Eni and sets a timetable for finally reaching a verdict in the long-running case.

The decision is the second piece of bad news in a few days for Milan prosecutors after a witness last week refused to confirm a key statement. read more

In the corruption case, Eni and Shell are accused of buying Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oilfield in the knowledge that the vast majority of the $1.3 billion purchase price would be siphoned off to agents and middlemen in corrupt payments.

Emilio Parodi: JULY 4, 2019

MILAN, July 4 (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors are widening an investigation into suspected obstruction of justice by officials of oil group Eni, sources said, threatening to open a new legal front for the company as it defends itself in a major corruption trial.

The inquiry is preliminary and has been overshadowed by the ongoing trial, which centres on the 2011 purchase of a Nigerian oilfield by Eni and oil major Shell, but it is gathering momentum, said three sources familiar with the probe. read more

Although Shell and ENI initially claimed they did not know the money would end up with Mr Etete and his cronies, evidence has shown that claim to be false.

Oladeinde Olawoyin: July 18, 2019

A major witness in the long-running Malabu oil scandal on Wednesday told an Italian court that Eni officials knew that the controversial payment made in the deal would go to Malabu oil company, controlled by Nigeria’s former oil minister, Dan Etete.

Vincenzo Armanna, former Eni manager and defendant in the corruption trial, said in his testimony that it was clear to everyone involved in the deal that Mr Etete would get over $1 billion, adding that there was no doubt the money was going to Malabu. read more

Oil major Shell (RDSa.L), which jointly bought the offshore field with Eni, is also on trial for corruption over the deal.

Emilio Parodi: 17 July 2019

MILAN (Reuters) – Officials from Eni (ENI.MI) sought to convince a witness, a former Eni manager, to withdraw some statements he made during investigations into a Nigerian corruption case involving the Italian oil group, a court heard on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale made the comment in a trial hearing into the case, during a legal debate over a request by Eni lawyers to adjourn proceedings to give more time to consider evidence in a related obstruction-of-justice investigation. read more

Printed below is a translation of an article published this weekend by the Dutch broadcaster NRC. It is about the Shell internal communications and documents relating to the OPL 245 Nigerian oil deal corruption case seized during a raid carried out by the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) at Shell HQ in the Hague in 2016. In a controversial move, Shell lawyers are resorting to legal machinations to frustrate the progress of the Dutch proceedings. On this occasion by claiming legal privilege and secrecy over the seized evidence. Criminal proceedings relating to the same massively corrupt oil deal are moving forward quickly in Italy (but at a snail’s pace in the Netherlands, Shell’s home country). A related tapped telephone conversation involving Shell CEO Ben van Beurden when he ordered that no documents should be volunteered to the investigators carrying out the raid can be heard here. Undisputably, another Shell cover-up tactic. So much for Shell’s claimed business principles from a company that seems to employ more MI6 people than MI6. Listen to the taped call. 

Dutch corruption case against Shell is, according to lawyers, inevitably delayed

Professional secrecy

Call for OM to simplify procedures related to non-disclosure law encounters astonishment among lawyers and scientists

By our editors Carola Houtekamer and Merijn Rengers: Amsterdam.

Shell and the Public Prosecution Service were honest about it on Thursday. Yes, they clash over the internal Shell documents that were seized by the FIOD investigation service at the head office in The Hague during the beginning of 2016. They deal with the corruption case involving OPL245, a mega-oil field off the coast of Nigeria. read more

Nigeria could seek as much as $3.5 billion in damages from Royal Dutch Shell and Eni over an allegedly corrupt deal for one of Africa’s biggest untapped oilfields.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria has filed a claim in the High Court in London against the two oil companies over the deal in which they acquired the OPL 245 oil licence for $1.3 billion. It alleges that the deal was corrupt and resulted in Nigeria receiving “no or negligible value” for rights to the “extremely valuable” offshore licence, which it estimates was in fact worth “at least $3.5 billion”. read more