Unsealed suitcase in the
hands of Swiss authorities may provide a lot of details on the Malabu oil
scandal Above Dan Etete: Minister of oil at the time of the transaction.
Materials in a suitcase
seized nearly three years ago by Swiss authorities may unlock the identities of
the Nigerian recipients of the $1.1billion in corrupt payments by Shell and ENI
over the purchase of OPL 245 from Malabu Oil.
A Geneva prosecutor is now
reviewing the materials and will decide what can be shared with Italian
authorities, where some trials have begun in the monumental bribery scandal.
The prosecutor received the
green light after Switzerland’s top court, the Federal Tribunal, rejected an
appeal by Nigerian defendant Emeka Obi to prevent his bag from being unsealed.
The Lausanne court’s Nov. 8
ruling, published online, said that the confiscated material – including
documents, an external hard drive, British and African passports, and USB keys
– could have “potential pertinence” in the criminal investigation and the
sealing could be lifted without violating Swiss law.
“The Geneva prosecutor now
has access to all the material in conformity with the Federal Tribunal ruling,”
it said in a reply to Reuters.
He will select the material
to be handed over, it said. Under Swiss law, privileged information cannot be
shared in international judicial assistance in criminal matters and the
prosecutor’s choice of documents can be appealed.
Obi’s Geneva lawyers Paul
Gully-Hart and Charles Goumaz told Reuters that they were cooperating with the
prosecutor’s office.
“With respect to the
ongoing proceedings in Switzerland, regarding the suitcase of our client, we
can confirm that no decision has yet been taken in respect of the transmission
of any of its contents to the Italian authorities,” they said in a statement.
“Our client has maintained
his innocence in regards to the various allegations made by the Milan
prosecutors and is confident that the final evaluation of the contents of his
bag will confirm this.
“Our position remains, as
it has always been from the beginning, that the only material that should even
be considered for transmission to the Italians must be strictly limited to
non-protected material that is directly related to our client’s involvement in
the OPL 245 transaction,” they added.
An Italian judge said on
Monday Eni and Shell were fully aware their 2011 purchase of a Nigerian
oilfield would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and
officials.
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.
The Milan judge made the
comment in her written reasons for the September conviction of Obi and Italian
Gianluca Di Nardo, both middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, for corruption. The pair
were jailed for four years.
Obi and Di Nardo have been
tried separately from Eni and Shell, which also face corruption allegations
over the same deal in a hearing that is expected to drag on for months.
Eni has denied any
wrongdoing. Shell said on Monday that neither Obi nor Di Nardo had worked for
Shell, and that there was no basis to convict it or any of its former staff of
alleged offences related to the deal.
Obi brought the Swiss case
to keep the contents of the bag seized in Geneva in April 2016 from being
shared with foreign authorities.
Its confiscation led the
Geneva prosecutor to open a criminal case for suspected corruption of foreign
officials and money-laundering. Days later Italian authorities requested
judicial assistance, arguing that the suitcase and its contents had been deliberately
stashed in Geneva, the Swiss ruling said.
Italy’s proceedings
targeted 13 defendants and two companies suspected of corruption activities
from 2009 and 2014 linked to acquiring prospecting rights in Africa, it said.
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