Italian Prosecutors Accuse GEJ, Diezani , Gusau, Adoke, Bayo Ojo, Etete of Sharing $1.3b In Malabu Oil Fraud.
Italian prosecutors conducting an investigative report have accused former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and four others of fraud.
Also indicted in the report are former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Attorney Generals Mohammed Adoke and Bayo Ojo, former Minister of Defense and ex-National Security Adviser, Aliyu Gusau.
The report also names a long list of other senior government officials who shared hundreds of millions of dollars in the Malabu oil fraud deal.
According to SaharaReporters, the Italian prosecutors alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan and several aides as well as top corporate officials of international oil firms, Eni and Shell, met several times between 2010 and 2011 to seal the fraudulent Malabu deal. and split a massive loot running into hundreds of millions
The report claims that the group shared a massive loot running into hundreds of millions between the Nigerian government and public interests as well as corporate officials.
Italian Prosecutors Accuse GEJ Of
Involvement In Malabu Oil Fraud
According to the Italian prosecutor’s report, Dauzia Loya Etete, a Minister under Gen Sani Abacha popularly called “Dan Etete” and his Malabu company were at the center of the scam.
The fraudulent deal involved the sale of an oil bloc named OPL 245 illicitly acquired by Dan Etete in 1998.
According to the Italian prosecutors, Mr. Etete had engaged Zubelum Chukwuemeka Obi to source for buyers of the oil bloc.
Subsequently, Italian oil giant, Eni, the parent of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC) and Royal Dutch Shell, contracted to acquire 100 percent of the 245 oil block for a deal that totalled $1.3 billion.
The investigators are alleging that much of the funds was set aside for fraudulent payments to president Jonathan and other government officials as well as corporate executives of Eni and Shell.
The report not only names a long list of officials of Shell and Eni, it also indicts the former president, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Mr.
Dan Etete, Mr. Adoke, former NSA Gusau, Mr. Obi, Mr. Ojo, and Alhaji Abubakar as beneficiaries from the Malabu Oil fraud.




https://buzznigeria.com/italian-prosecutors-accuse-gej-fraud/


After reading this I was faced with a couple of question?

1. Why did the Nigerian government allow an ex convict to sell our biggest property?

2. Why was an oil well that has untapped crude worth about 9 billion barrels sold for just 1.3 billion naira?

3. Why is it that since Shell and Eni have been roped in this scandal, why did they not just demand for their money?

4. Why is it that due diligence was not done by the president and his council before the eventual sale of OPL 245

5. Why did they allow the sale to sail through in 2011 after it was stalled ?

6. How will some government officials sell the future of the people for their selfish greed?

7. Where is the 1.3 billion naira gotten from the illogical sale of the African largest oil well

8. Why must the whites always continue to colonise us directly or indirectly

9. Why is it that the people working NNPC have not proposed a means to make the country have a well functional and sustainable refinery?

10. Finally, if former president, AGF and ors are not the beneficiaries of the sale called fraud, why have the not disclosed to us the reasons why a national asset was sold and what the money was used for?

OK

Politheifcians and stealing are like 5 and 6

Take it or leave it

Honestly ,our politicians have finished this country!

Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan, can you actually sleep where ever you are right now?!

You are.......... (I rest my case, sigh!!)

I even heard that the oil well was worth 500 billion dollars and that is why Shell and Eni are always going to court to stop Nigerian govt from collecting it back...They really scammed us ooo

can one take what is not there?

Someone, some people, some friends benefitted massively from that sale, the monetary value is what we are hearing about, there are other things involved, private islands, private jets, different gifts

Court proceedings are due to begin in Italy today to determine whether oil giant Shell will face trial on corruption charges over the purchase of one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks.
Italian prosecutors claim Shell and Italian oil
major Eni concluded a deal for the rights to
exploit the Nigerian deepwater oil block OPL 245 with knowledge that the money would fall into the hands of a convicted money-launderer and be turned into political kickbacks.
They are accusing Shell, Eni and several of Eni’s senior executives, including its CEO Claudio Descalzi, of corruption over the purchase of the block in 2011 .
A preliminary hearing over the alleged offences is being held behind closed doors in Milan and is expected to last several weeks.
The case has been described by anti-corruption Global Witness as “one of the biggest scandals in the history of the oil sector” and as a warning to anyone in the oil and gas industry taking part in corruption practices.
It comes days after Shell was forced to admit it dealt with convicted money-launderer Dan Etete, a former oil minister, when sealing the deal with the Nigerian Government. This follows six years of Shell insisting it had dealt only with the Nigerian Government when making the deal.
In 2011, Shell and Eni paid the Nigerian
Government $1.3bn (£1bn) for the rights to
access the oil bloc, allegedly ending a
longstanding dispute with Nigerian company
Malabu Oil and Gas, who previously owned the rights to the oil field.
But prosecutors claim Shell and Eni gave $1.1bn (£858m) to Etete’s company Malabu, depriving the Nigerian people of a sum that is larger than the country’s 2016 healthcare budget , according to Global Witness.
The deepwater oil block off the Niger Delta known as OPL 245 is believed to hold an estimated nine billion barrels of oil and to be worth nearly half a trillion dollars at today’s price.
Access to the oil reportedly could increase Shell’s global oil reserves by a third and add two thirds to Eni’s reserves . In January, the Nigerian Government suspended the oil majors’ rights to the oil bloc in regards to the pending investigation.
The rights to this huge oil field were originally
acquired by Etete’s Malabu company for a small sum in 1998, when he was oil minister. In 2007, Etete was convicted of money-laundering in a separate case in France.
But several investigations published over the last few weeks claim that Shell and Eni were aware that money was being handed over to Malabu.
What the Investigations Revealed Internal emails obtained by Global Witness show
that Shell’s top executives knew the money from the deal would be used to “pay off people” and flow into the pockets of some of the country’s most senior officials, including former president Goodluck Jonathan.
The emails also show Shell was negotiating the deal with Etete a year before it was signed .
According to documents filed by prosecutors,
$466m (£364m) were laundered through a
network of bureaux de change in Nigeria and
passed on to Jonathan and members of
his government.
Eni and Descalzi have denied the charges and
Shell previously said its employees had done
nothing illegal. Etete has not responded to
requests for comments but consistently denied any wrongdoing and a spokesman for Jonathan told the BBC the allegations were a “false narrative” .
These revelations follow DeSmog UK’s own
investigation , which showed the UK’s foreign
office agreed to lobby the Nigerian Government on behalf of Shell to protect its oil interests in the Niger Delta.
Oil campaigner for Global Witness Barnaby Pace told DeSmog UK: “Shell’s position claiming that they knew nothing was frankly unsustainable for them. It would not be surprising if they made a legal argument on the basis they admitted their involvement with Etete early rather than half way through a trial.
“Now that Shell has shifted its position, it puts them at odds with the position taken by Eni. Eni has been arguing that what happens with the money from the sale is not their responsibility and it’s nothing to do with them.”
A Shell spokesman told the BBC that Shell made repeated attempts “to fully establish and understand Malabu's ownership structure,
including the exact role of Mr Etete in Malabu”.
“Over time it became clear to us that Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated
settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not. This was consistent with the Federal Government of Nigeria's (FGN) position.
“We believe that the settlement was a fully legal transaction with the FGN,” he said.
But documents obtained by BuzzFeed and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reveal that Shell executives knew the deal would benefit Malabu by more than $1bn (£858m).
In an email from October 2010 between senior executives, executive board member Malcolm Brinded outlined details of the $1.3bn deal to secure OPL 245 and said it “has the advantage that Malabu gets well over $1bln”.
In another email circulated to senior executive, it is made clear that part of the money received by Etete would be used to “pay people off” .
Another email from a former MI6 officer
employed by Shell , dated March 2010 and
obtained by Global Witness, shows the company
believed Etete would benefit from the deal.
It reads: “Etete can smell the money. If, at 70 years old, he does turn his nose up at 1.2 bill he is completely certifiable and we should then probably just hold out until nature takes its course with him.”
This email was forwarded to the then Shell chief executive Peter Voser, which shows that
knowledge of Etete’s involvement were known
from the very top.
The deal over the rights to OPL 245 was signed off by Voser and his Eni counterpart just months after Shell paid $30m (£23m) to settle previous claims of bribery in Nigeria and elsewhere.
At the time the deal went through, Shell was five months into a deferred prosecution agreement – the equivalent to being under probation – with the US Department of Justice.
A spokesman for Eni told BuzzFeed: “Eni and
Shell are fully cooperating with the relevant
authorities in Italy and in Nigeria. We shall
continue to cooperate with relevant authorities in the investigations and continue to underscore the fact that ENI and its personnel have not been involved in any wrongdoing.”
Representatives of Peter Voser declined
to comment.
Why does it matter? “Test Case”
The preliminary hearing starting today in Milan will see the courts having to decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Shell and Eni, which could then face trial in the Autumn.
The procedure is long and the outcome is not
expected before the end of May 2017.
Prosecutors also confirmed they will seek
charges against four senior Shell executives,
including the current Shell Foundation Chairman Malcolm Brinded, who at the time of the deal was Shell’s head of Global Exploration and Production.
Speaking to DeSmog UK, Global Witness
campaigner Pace, said the charges were “a test case”, which will send a strong warning to the oil and gas industry that it will be held accountable over corruption claims.
“This is important because senior executives of two of the world’s biggest companies are entering the first stage of a trial. It’s a big deal.
“I see this as very much as a test case. Whether innocent or guilty, this will make other oil and gas companies realise the consequences,” he said.
“They are being held to account and the public will know about it. This has a deterrent effect.”


https://www.desmog.uk/2017/04/20/italian-court-decide-whether-shell-face-trial-over-allegations-corruption-amidst-fresh-revelations

ShobayoEmma:
can one take what is not there?

How do you mean?

emmysexxy:
OK

OK what

Why is the current administration not asking that they be joined as an interested party to the suit currently ongoing in Italy?

The story of Naija so far. We have been cursed. If you disagree that we are not cursed, can you then explain how someone can sell an asset worth up to $500bn for just $1.5bn. Less than 0.5% of its value.

clevadani:
The story of Naija so far. We have been cursed. If you disagree that we are not cursed, can you then explain how someone can sell an asset worth up to $500bn for just $1.5bn. Less than 0.5% of its value.

why must it be that until and after foreign courts start taking up our matter before we have sense.

Lies...... lies ..........lies.


And the op is the greatest liar of all times not to tell Nigerians that it under Obasanjo that malubu deal took place.

Op did not tell us that Jonathan also probed ijto malabu oil deal but the evil people called it witchhunt.

Op did not tell us that reports does not convict anyone.

Op did not mention that futunato who was mentioned in the report is a Jew.


Etc etc.

If you don't have anything good to say about someone just shutup.

andersonbaba:




why must it be that until and after foreign courts start taking up our matter before we have sense.

Another reasonable question. Just imagine. If foreign courts hadn't taken up this case, it would have gone under the bridge. Maybe no one would have heard about it. And if maybe the Efcc decides to make the case public. People will still come out to cry Blue murder and say its media persecution to tarnish the image of Jonathan.
Everyday, our situation appears hopeless with virtually no light at the end of the tunnel.
If you are in doubt about our hopeless state, just look at the case of Ibori. The only high profile corruption conviction who is still treated like a heroes despite taking the money if his people.

Where are the Jonathan-is-our-hero crew?

Come here, come and defend your master. It doesn't matter that you haven't had lunch this evening. Just come and show your loyalty.

And the foolish wailers will still be calling some people zombie.

ElsonMorali:
Where are the Jonathan-is-our-hero crew?

Come here, come and defend your master. It doesn't matter that you haven't had lunch this evening. Just come and show your loyalty.

And the foolish wailers will still be calling some people zombie.

So you don't know that the crew you just mentioned are on their way to Italy to defend their Hero?.
Sometimes I'm ashamed to be in the same country with these group of people.
Now I know why their region is the most backward in the country, and sometimes I wonder if blood actually run in their vein.
Anyone who never see anything wrong in the evil like Malabu oil scam is nothing but a principality
This country is already sold, SHAME.

7lives:


So you don't know that the crew you just mentioned are on their way to Italy to defend their Hero?.
Sometimes I'm ashamed to be in the same country with these group of people.
Now I know why their region is the most backward in the country, and sometimes I wonder if blood actually run in their vein.
Anyone who never see anything wrong in the evil like Malabu oil scam is nothing but a principality
This country is already sold, SHAME.

You got that right.

[s]

gsmphoneseller:
Lies...... lies ..........lies.


And the op is the greatest liar of all times not to tell Nigerians that it under Obasanjo that malubu deal took place.

Op did not tell us that Jonathan also probed ijto malabu oil deal but the evil people called it witchhunt.

Op did not tell us that reports does not convict anyone.

Op did not mention that futunato who was mentioned in the report is a Jew.


Etc etc.

If you don't have anything good to say about someone just shutup.

[/s]

Jonathan investigated sotee he follow collect $200M? Sharap jare

gsmphoneseller:
Lies...... lies ..........lies.


And the op is the greatest liar of all times not to tell Nigerians that it under Obasanjo that malubu deal took place.

Op did not tell us that Jonathan also probed ijto malabu oil deal but the evil people called it witchhunt.

Op did not tell us that reports does not convict anyone.

Op did not mention that futunato who was mentioned in the report is a Jew.


Etc etc.

If you don't have anything good to say about someone just shutup.

Let me educate you illiterate brain:

The Obasanjo administration revoked the Malabo deal.

On Jonathan's probe, it was just a theatrical charade after international govts criticised the deal.

U said report does not convicts anybody... Yea true but the substantial evidence against this people are enormous. While the then govt officials buried the evidence, the Italian prosecutor still evidence about the transaction. Furthermore, Eni has admitted that the deal was with Dan Etete and not the nigerian govt
Further take note that the obasanjo Adminstration paid off Malabu by acquiring back the Oil well he illegally allocated for herself in 2006

Maybe this picture will help you to start reasoning and help you combat the robbers of our children's future

vedaxcool:
[s][/s]

Jonathan investigated sotee he follow collect $200M? Sharap jare

As in someone that collected the 1.3 billion dollar of the proceeds of sale.

modelmike7:
Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan, can you actually sleep where ever you are right now?!

You are.......... (I rest my case, sigh!!)

Folks lik you dont get and facts dont matter to you. Abacha gifted those oil blocks to his cronies including Etete.
Obj wanted to stop the sale, but Malabu won court order stopping FG from taking over.
OBJ, Yar'dua and GEJ all signed to have Malabu sell its assets.
Sale and tranfer happened under GEJ...

BigIyanga:

Folks lik you dont get and facts dont matter to you. Abacha gifted those oil blocks to his cronies including Etete.
Obj wanted to stop the sale, but Malabu won court order stopping FG from taking over.
OBJ, Yar'dua and GEJ all signed to have Malabu sell its assets.
Sale and tranfer happened under GEJ...

sir I think the story is that:
1. Dan Etete immediately after the death of Abacha used a firm to allocate an oil well to himself in 1998

2. The Obasanjo administration saw it as fraudulent and tried to stop it and the govt collected it but they paid Dan Etete 210 million dollars as settlement

3. in 2011 same Dan Etete went to meet the president and AGF and facilitated the sale of same oil to shell and Eni for 1.3billion dollars and they squandered the money because there is no account for it

December 15, decide whether  $85 million (N17 billion) frozen by UK authorities should be released to a fraudulent company, Malabu Oil and Gas, controlled by ex-convict, Dan Etete.
The money, frozen at the request of Italian authorities, is part of the $1.092 billion paid by oil giants, Shell and ENI, to Malabu through the Nigerian government.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported on the deal, enmeshed in various layers of corruption, and currently under investigation by authorities in four countries from three continents.
The $1.092 billion was meant as payment for an oil bloc, OPL 245, the juiciest oil bloc in Africa and estimated to contain about 9.23 billion barrels of crude oil.
Mr. Etete awarded the oil bloc to Malabu in 1998 while he was Nigeria’s petroleum minister against Nigerian laws as he failed to declare his interest in the company and actually falsified a fictional character, Kweku Amafegha, through which he owned shares in the company.
Both the givers, Shell and ENI, and the Nigerian government have given contradictory reasons on the 2011 agreement which led to Mr. Etete being paid money which should have gone to improving the lives of Nigerians.
While Shell and ENI have, contrary to all evidence, claimed that they paid the money to the Nigerian government not knowing who the final beneficiary would be, the Nigerian government through the former attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, claimed it only acted as a  “facilitator” between two willing parties.
However, while about two thirds of the money (over $800 million) has been shared and largely spent by Mr. Etete and his cohorts, about $195 million dollars remain frozen in two separate countries- England and Switzerland.

Summary of Malabu’s history. Source: Global Witness
Freezing $110 million
The first of the frozen sum, $110.5 million (N22.1 billion) is held by Swiss authorities on the request of Italian prosecutors who are investigating ENI’s role in the fraud.
The money was transferred to Switzerland from London after a shadowy businessman, Emeka Obi, through his company, Energy Venture Partners (EVP), won a suit against Malabu. Mr. Obi sued Malabu in London claiming he was entitled to a share of the largesse as he had helped facilitate the deal between the oil majors and Malabu. In July 2013, the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division presided by Lady Justice Gloster ruled in favour of Mr. Obi that he was entitled to “a fee of 8.5% of the total disposal consideration of $1.3 billion.”
Following the court’s ruling, the money was transferred to EVP’s Swiss accounts. However, Italian authorities who had by then started investigating the fraudulent deal asked Swiss authorities to freeze the money where it has since remained.
The London $85 million
Like it did in Switzerland, the Italian prosecutors also called for a freeze of $85 million in the London account. The money was the last part of the OPL 245 largesse not yet distributed.
However, sensing that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was yet to find its feet on international legal matters, Mr. Etete approached the British court and asked that the money be returned to him.
At a two-day hearing that started on November 23, Mr. Etete’s lawyers argued that there was no fraud in the deal and asked that the money be released to him.
While Mr. Etete argued that the money be released to him, the Italian prosecutor argued that “their investigation could lead to a potential forfeiture of the money down the road,” a source who has followed the case and was present at the proceedings told PREMIUM TIMES.
Malabu’s lawyers told the court that freezing the money was an assault on Nigeria and questioned how the court could imagine that Nigeria’s former Attorney general, Mr. Adoke, and Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, who both authorised the deal could be a party to corruption.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how both Messrs. Adoke and Ngama hurriedly approved the transfer of the $1.092 billion of the total sum from Nigeria’s London account into Malabu’s accounts a day before former World Bank Managing Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was to assume office as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala later washed her hands off the deal and referred all enquiries to Mr. Adoke, who as reported by PREMIUM TIMES lied to Nigerians and the House of Representatives about the deal.
At the British Court on November 23 and 24, Malabu’s lawyers did not disclose to the judge that Mr. Etete was recently questioned by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, which is investigating the case and stated in an interim report that the deal was fraught with corruption.
At the court, the Crown Prosecutor argued that the money should remain frozen and described the 2011 agreement as a “smashing grab of the Nigerian government then in the hands of Goodluck Jonathan.”
It involved “high watering amount of money” and was centred on a “corrupt arrangement,” he told the court.
The prosecutor described Mr. Etete as a “bagman” who has distributed the funds to “prominent Nigerian figures.”
The prosecutor listed the $10 million paid to Bayo Ojo, Nigeria’s former Attorney General, and over $500 million paid to Abubakar Aliyu, a man described as “Mr. Corruption” by EFCC officials and a close ally of ex-President Jonathan and other PDP leaders, as evidence of the distributions.
The prosecutor said Malabu has not been able to justify the money given to these individuals and that there was “a strong inference of corruption,” in the deal.
He described the deal as a textbook example of grand corruption and the involvement of the Nigerian government as a necessary part of it being grand.
Nigeria absent
Although the Malabu deal is being investigated by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, which recently invited Mr. Aliyu for questioning, and the presidential committee on corruption, Nigeria was not represented during the London hearing.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the EFCC investigation was stalled during the Jonathan administration with investigators lamenting they were discouraged from proceeding with their work although an interim EFCC investigation report stated that the deal and transfers of the money showed a “cloudy scene associated with fraudulent dealings.”


Barnaby Pace, an oil transparency campaigner with Global Witness, expressed surprise at Nigeria’s absence at the London court giving the opportunity the country has not only to retrieve the money but also to set a major example of President Buhari’s repeatedly stated stance of firm opposition to corruption.
“The Nigerian government coming out to say this a corrupt deal is a massive game changer,” he said. “It’s a fairly obvious test case for the Nigerian government.”
However sources at both the EFCC and the Nigerian Vice President’s office confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the government was now aware of the case and would cooperate with both the Italian and British authorities to ensure all the fraudulent sums are returned to Nigeria.
Irrespective of how Nigeria acts, the decision whether or not to release the $85 million to Mr. Etete will be made by the British judgeon Tuesday.


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/195141-malabu-opl245-fraud-dan-etete-wants-nigerias-n17-billion.html