Shell and Eni face one of the biggest corruption cases in corporate history over $1.3bn Nigerian oil field

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Giant oil companies, offshore accounts, ex-MI6 agents, champagne lunches, a former Nigerian president and allegations of hundreds of millions of dollars paid as bribes – the corruption case against Shell and Italy’s Eni filed by prosecutors in Milan over a shady $1.3bn deal for a vast African oil field could have been lifted from the pages of an espionage thriller. Italian prosecutors allege that, of the total $1.3bn fee paid by Shell and Eni for the oil field, $1.1bn went not into the coffers of the Nigerian state but the accounts of former oil minister Dan Etete who then distributed hundreds of millions to well-connected individuals, including former president Goodluck Jonathan. Former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, who controlled Malabu, a company that received hundred of millions of dollars from the deal Couriol has said that Obi was merely a friend who left the bag at his flat by mistake while on holiday. Shell’s day in court comes after years of denials in which it said it had not knowingly transacted with convicted money launderer and former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete when it purchased the lucrative OPL 245 field.