Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA face additional corruption
allegations over a Nigerian oil deal, after the Federal Government
said in a London lawsuit that it believed a handful of executives,
including Chief Executive Officers, were tied to more than $1bn in
bribery payments.
The Federal Government had in December last year filed a $1.1bn
lawsuit against Shell and Eni in a commercial court in London in
relation to a 2011 oilfield deal in Nigeria.
In court documents filed in early April, the Nigerian government
said the oil companies’ senior managers agreed in 2011 to make a
large payment for an offshore oil block, Oil Prospecting Licence
245, understanding the money would trickle down to government
officials and senior executives from both companies, Bloomberg
reported on Tuesday.
The filing singles out individuals who haven’t previously been
caught up in the scandal, including a former Shell CEO, Peter
Voser, and Maarten Wetselaar, the current head of its large natural
gas business.
The allegations are the latest bombshells in a year-old dispute
over exploration rights to OPL 245 that has spread to courtrooms
throughout Europe. In addition to Shell and its partner, Eni,
Nigeria separately sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. for transferring
payments for the deal, while both oil companies and some executives
face a criminal trial in Milan.
The acquisition of OPL 245 was “part of a fraudulent and corrupt
scheme that involved the payment of bribes. The scheme also
involved (or at least intended) the payment of bribes to Shell
and/or Eni executives,” the Federal Government said in a court
filing.
A Shell spokeswoman said the transaction was “fully legal” and
if improper payments were made, they were done without the
knowledge of the company.
An Eni spokeswoman said the London case is a “mere duplication”
of a case related to the Milan trial. Voser is currently interim
CEO at ABB Ltd., which directed questions on OPL 245 to Shell.
Shell declined to make Wetselaar available for an interview and
commented on his behalf, according to Bloomberg.
The Nigerian government is seeking more than $1bn in damages as
well as the right to revoke Shell and Eni’s license to OPL 245,
which may have billions of barrels of oil.
OPL 245 was created in 1998, when the then Petroleum Minister,
Dan Etete, carved out the offshore licence and awarded it to his
own company, the Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd.
Through successive regimes, it was taken from him, awarded to
Shell, and then given back, locking the companies and the
government in legal disputes.
To win control of OPL 245, Shell and Eni paid the Nigerian
government $1.1bn. The companies agree the payment was made, but
disagree about whether those funds then went to bribes.
According to accusations laid out by the government in the
lawsuit, the plan from the start was that former Nigerian
government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, and
Shell and Eni executives would receive personal payouts.
Some of the allegations in the lawsuit, however, have been
fiercely contested in the Milan criminal case.
The Nigerian complaint recounts allegations that Roberto Casula,
a senior Eni executive, got $50m in cash delivered to his home. But
lawyers for Casula, Guido Alleva, and Giuseppe Fornari, say that
prosecutors in Milan weren’t able to back up the story.
They said the one witness called to testify about the issue
wasn’t able to confirm the allegations.
In another payment recounted in the lawsuit, Peter Robinson,
then Shell’s regional vice president, ended up with “several
hundred million Swiss franc” Nigeria believes was related to the
OPL 245 deal that he may have intended to distribute to others.
Etete kept as much as $400m for himself, which was “used on
lavish personal expenditure for Etete and his family,” according to
the Nigerian government’s court document. Some of that money was
also allegedly used to pay a fine for money laundering Etete
incurred during the period he was negotiating over OPL 245.
A spokesman for Jonathan said he was unaware of the lawsuit. A
spokesman for Etete couldn’t be reached to comment.
After the payment in 2011, Shell and Eni were awarded the
licence, but the deal quickly fell apart. JPMorgan told Shell that
one bank had rejected its attempt to transfer the initial $1.1bn
payment, according to the lawsuit. That bank had concerns the money
was earmarked for Etete, according to the filing.
JPMorgan previously said in a separate filing that the bank
returned the funds “for compliance reasons.”
The lawsuit recounts how a former UK lawyer, who was paid $2m,
walked into a London police station in January 2014 with a suitcase
of cash, and explained he’d received it as part of an “arrangement”
with Etete.
The Nigerian government said none of the transactions could have
happened without the support or willful “blind eye” of Shell CEO,
Peter Voser; former CFO, Simon Henry; and current head of
integrated gas, Wetselaar, among others. It claimed that Shell’s
oil and gas exploration director at the time, Malcolm Brinded, was
“closely involved.”
Brinded, who is also on trial in Milan, was said to have pointed
to a previous statement denying wrongdoing.
Further, the government said Claudio Descalzi, who was then head
of exploration at Eni, was close to the OPL 245 negotiations. He
has since been promoted to CEO and remains in that position. He is
a defendant in the Milan case, and has denied any illegal behaviour
related to OPL 245.
Shell, Eni and other defendants in the London case have 45 days
to respond to the court filing dated April 8. The Milan trial is
ongoing and could take years. Two men that helped negotiate the
settlement but didn’t work directly for either company have already
been found guilty.
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