The Ecologist and others reports that Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil giant Eni have been ordered to stand trial in Milan on charges of aggravated international corruption for their role in a 2011 $1.1 billion deal for Nigerian oil block OPL 245. For years, Shell had claimed that it only paid the Nigerian Government for the oil block. But investigations showed, and Shell confessed, that it had dealt with former oil minister Dan Etete, via his front company Malabu. Etete was convicted of money laundering in France in 2007. He had awarded the OPL 245 oil block to his secretly owned company while serving as oil minister. In December 2016, the Milan Public Prosecutor alleged that $520 million from the deal was converted into cash and intended to be paid to the then Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, members of the government and other Nigerian government officials. He also alleges that money was also channelled to Eni and Shell executives with $50 million in cash delivered to the home of Eni’s then Head of Business for Sub-Saharan Africa, Roberto Casula. Nigerian authorities have also filed charges against a Shell subsidiary and Eni as well as several of their staff.
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