(Updates with Shell position on 2011 operation)
MILAN, July 3 (Reuters) - Oil majors Eni and Royal
Dutch Shell were aware that most of the money they
spent to buy a Nigerian oilfield in 2011 would go in corrupt
payments to politicians and officials, an Italian prosecutor
said on Thursday.
"They were kickbacks. And Eni and Shell knew it," Sergio
Spadaro told judges in Milan, summing up the prosecutors' case
in what is one of the industry's largest corruption scandals.
Italy's Eni and Shell, who deny any wrongdoing, acquired the
OPL 245 offshore field in 2011 for about $1.3 billion from
Malabu, a company owned by former Nigerian oil minister Dan
Etete.
Prosecutors allege that about $1.1 billion of that money was
siphoned off to politicians and middlemen, half of it to Etete
himself.
Shell says the 2011 agreement was a settlement of
long-standing litigation, following the previous allocation of
the block by the Nigerian government to Shell and Malabu.
During a seven-hour speech in a special court room to meet
COVID-19 requirements, Spadaro read out a series of emails
between former Shell managers, including one saying it had been
taken for granted Etete would have only kept a part of the price
for himself, using the rest to pay off Nigerian politicians.
"There are a whole load of sharks around," the email read
out by Spadaro said.
Prosecutors are expected to make their final sentencing
requests for those involved in the long-running case at a second
hearing in Milan scheduled for July 21.
Besides the two companies, another 13 people are involved in
the case including current Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi
and former Shell head of upstream Malcolm Brinded.
All the defendants have denied any wrongdoing, saying the
purchase price was paid into an official Nigerian government
account with all subsequent transfers being beyond their
control.
In a statement on Thursday, Eni said it had paid the
Nigerian government a fair and reasonable price for the field in
a clear and transparent way.
"Eni did not know, nor was obliged in any way to know, the
final destination of the funds subsequently paid to Malabu by
the Nigerian government," it said.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi and Alfredo Faieta, writing by
Stephen Jewkes, editing by Mark Potter)