Eni today reaffirmed its confidence in its chief executive Claudio Descalzi.
It comes after a Italian judge ruled that Eni SpA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and senior executives will face trial over a $1.1billion bribery scandal in Nigeria.
While stating that the company accepts the court and the judge’s decision to put the company, Descalzi and a number of its managers on trial for corruption, they also reiterated their confidence in their chief executive’s innocence.
The case is related to the acquisition of a deepwater oil-prospecting license by Eni and Shell in the Gulf of Guinea in 2011.
Prosecutors allege that the two companies’ payment of almost $1.1billion into a Nigerian government escrow account was later distributed as payoffs.
Eni are reaffirming their confidence in the innocence of Descalzi due the the findings of ‘independent investigators’ appointed by the organisation.
Eni said in an updated statement following the court decision: “Eni’s Board of Directors has reaffirmed its confidence that the company was not involved in alleged corrupt activities in relation to the transaction. The Board’s decision was also taken on the basis of the results of independent advisors’ investigations. The advisors were appointed to examine all relevant resolutions and documents deposited within the closing of the Milan prosecutors’ investigation in 2016.
“The Board of Directors also confirmed its full confidence that chief executive Claudio Descalzi was not involved in the alleged illegal conduct and, more broadly, in his role as head of the company.
“Eni expresses its full confidence in the judicial process and that the trial will ascertain and confirm the correctness and integrity of its conduct.”