A Nigerian man, Emeka Obi and an Italian middleman have been sentenced to four-year jail terms over $1.1 billion Malabu oil fraud.
A legal source told Reuters on Thursday, September 20, 2018, that a Milan court sentenced the two defendants to prison terms in a Nigeria corruption case related to a 2011 offshore oilfield purchase.
“The sources said the Milan judge had ordered the seizure of $98.4 million from Obi and more than 21 million Swiss francs ($21.9 million) from Di Nardo.”
“Prosecutors had alleged Obi received a mandate from former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete to find a buyer for OPL 245, collecting $114 million. Di Nardo, they said, took $24 million of that amount for putting Obi in touch with Eni,” Reuters reports
Malabu oil deal was struck in 2011 under President Goodluck Jonathan, where Nigerian government stand as a negotiator in the controversial sale of OPL 245 oil block in offshore Nigerian waters by energy companies Eni and Shell.
Brief background issue on Malabu oil deal
The two international oil and giants - Royal Dutch Shell and Italian Agip-Eni - paid out about $1.1 billion to Dan Etete, Nigeria's former petroleum minister who had previously been convicted of money laundering in France.
The payment and oil deal became a subject investigation across 6 countries. Several Nigerian government officials were believed to have received several million dollars in bribes for the enabling roles they played.
Shell denied the Nigerian and Italian when Reuters approached the company for a comment while Eni reiterated it had worked directly with the Nigerian government.
The main hearing of the court case involving Eni, Shell and 13 people is set for September 26, 2018.
Nigeria’s OPL 245 is one of the biggest sources of untapped oil reserves on the African continent with reserves estimated at 9 billion barrels.
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