Claudio Descalzi
, CEO of Eni, was acquitted by the Court of Milan in the trial for international corruption with the acquisition of the exploration rights of the Opl245 oil block in Nigeria at the center.
The judges also acquitted his predecessor and current AC Milan president,
Paolo Scaroni
.
All 15 defendants, including companies (Eni and Shell) were acquitted.
This was decided by the seventh section of the Court of Milan chaired by judge Marco Tremolada who also exonerated the then operational managers in the African country, the alleged intermediaries, Shell with its four former managers and the former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
"Finally Claudio Descalzi has been restored to his professional reputation and to Eni its role as a great company": is the comment of the lawyer Paola Severino, defender of the oil company's CEO.
Eni on the Milan Stock Exchange continues the session up and without particular fluctuations after the acquittal of the company and its advisor Claudio De Scalzi in the Nigeria case.
At Piazza Affari, the stock increased by 0.8% to 10.32 euros.
Before last summer, the Public Prosecutor had asked for sentences for everyone, including 8 years in prison for Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, and for his predecessor Scaroni, 10 years for the former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete, 7 years and 4 months for Roberto Casula, manager for the Italian oil company in the sub-Saharan Africa area, and the confiscation of 1 billion 92 million and 400 thousand dollars both from Eni and Shell - against which it is a pecuniary sanction of 900 thousand euros each was requested - both against all the defendants.
The requests for punishment have always been considered by the San Donato society "without any foundation", and "in the absence of any evidence or concrete reference to the contents of the preliminary investigation".
The lawyer De Castiglione in his speech this morning reiterated that "Eni and Shell have not provided any funding or any bribe, but have paid to obtain a license. There has been no discussion with public officials, but only a technical discussion- economic on the price of the good ".
In addition, the lawyer added that "underneath even the prosecutor and the civil party are well aware of the total inconsistency of the hypothesis that 'everyone knew' about money".
THE PROCESS -
The sentence was pronounced by the seventh criminal section in the trial, which began three years ago, in March 2018, and with this at the center, this was the hypothesis of the deputy prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale and of the prosecutor Sergio Spadaro, an alleged maxi bribe more than 1 billion and 92 million dollars that would have been paid, according to the accusation, by Eni and Shell to obtain in 2011 the license on the exploration rights of the Nigerian field.
Thesis, that of the Public Prosecutor's Office, 'canceled' today by the judges who acquitted all the defendants with full formula "because the fact does not exist".
The reasons will be filed in 90 days.
In particular, the judges acquitted the CEO Eni Descalzi, at the time dg Exploration & Production, the former number one Scaroni, the former operations manager of the San Donato group in sub-Saharan Africa Roberto Casula, the former manager of the Italian company in the African country is a 'great accuser' Vincenzo Armanna, the former manager of NAE, Eni subsidiary in Nigeria, Ciro Antonio Pagano, the former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
And then again Luigi Bisignani, the Russian Ednan Agaev and Gianfranco Falcioni, the latter entrepreneur and former vice consul in Nigeria, the former president of the Shell Foundation Malcom Brinded and the former executives of the Dutch company Peter Robinson, Guy Jonathan Colgate and John Coplestone.
The two companies, accused by the law on the administrative liability of entities, are also acquitted.
With the acquittals, of course, no compensation for the Nigerian government, which was a civil party.
Already in the trial on the Saipem-Algeria case, in which the accusation was always international corruption, Eni, Scaroni himself, together with another former manager of the company, have already been definitively acquitted.
Definitive acquittal that had also arrived for Saipem and its managers.
In the case of Nigeria, on the other hand, the alleged mediators Obi Emeka and Gianluca Di Nardo were sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment with an abbreviated procedure.