Shell Finally Admits Massive Bribery In Nigeria After Six Years Of Denial

After six years of denial, Shell finally admits that it knew that most of the $1.3 billion the company paid to Nigeria in order to develop the OPL245 oil field in that country was not going to the Nigerian government but was instead going to pay off middlemen in the deal.

According to documents obtained by the anti-corruption organizations Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, the rights to the oil field belonged to a company controlled by Nigeria's oil minister at the time, Dan Etete. When Shell bought the rights to develop the field along with Italian company Eni, they paid the $1.3 billion to the oil minister's company. Nearly half of the money then went to pay off Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, and other members of his administration, including Etete who apparently made $40 million.

For years, Shell has claimed that the money was paid to the Nigerian government and dismissed reports that it knew of the payoffs resulting from the transaction. But the documents show that Shell was well aware of the bribes that would be taken as part of the deal. A Shell employee reported to his superiors in an email, "Saw my Delta man. 245. He spoke to Mrs E[tete] this morning. She says E claims he will only get 40m of the 300m we offering - rest goes in paying people off." Another colleague's email said, "Etete claims he has shown (though not copied) a letter from President reiterating Malabu’s 11pc equity/contract “award”. This letter [is] clearly an attempt to deliver significant revenues to GLJ [Goodluck Jonathan] as part of any transaction."

As the founder of Global Witness, said: “This is a huge U-turn that reveals Shell’s duplicity. For six years it has asserted it only paid the Nigerian government, insisting it has 'never been anything but transparent' about the deal for the oil block, and that its actions were morally OK'."  But there is something more unbelievable than just Shell's lies in this matter. Incredibly, Shell entered into this dirty transaction just months after the company paid a $30 million fine in the US for another Nigerian bribery scandal. That fine came with a deferred prosecution agreement that required Shell to not engage in any similar behavior going forward. In theory, US authorities should have been monitoring Shell's subsequent behavior after that agreement.

Right now, Shell is under investigation in Italy and the Netherlands concerning this bribery scandal. The US authorities should also be pursuing Shell for violating its deferred prosecution agreement, but that seems highly doubtful under the Trump administration and AG Jeff Sessions. But it is yet another example of the way companies, especially these large multinational corporations act with impunity and a near total disregard for the law.