By Udeme Akpan with agency report
AN Italian judge found, yesterday, that Eni and Royal Dutch Shell were aware that their 2011 purchase of the Malabu oil block would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials.
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According to Reuters, Italy’s Eni and Shell bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about $1.3 billion in a deal that spawned one of the industry’s largest corruption scandals. It is alleged that about $1.1 billion of the total was siphoned to agents and middlemen.
It stated that the Milan judge made the comment in her written reasons for the September conviction of Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, both middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, for corruption. The pair was jailed for four years.
“The management of oil companies Eni and Shell, were fully aware of the fact that part of the $1.092 billion paid would have been used to compensate…
