Chief Etete, who served under military dictator General Sani Abacha, was convicted of using €15m believed to have been fraudulently obtained, to buy properties in 1999 and 2000. Choice houses he bought in France with the money included a chateau in northwestern France, a Paris apartment and a luxury villa in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly.
In one of the most controversial and corrupt oil deals in Nigeria's history, Malabu Oil and Gas, a company owned by Chief Etete, was allocated the OPL 245 and oil and gas block in April 1998 and appointed Shell as its technical partner. However, the licence was subsequently revoked by the federal government on July 2, 2001 after it was alleged that Chief Etete had been paid more than $1bn through Malabu as part of the deal.
Known for his flambouyant lifestyle, Chief Etete has since been convicted of money laundering by a French court and a London high court has ruled that EVP, a firm registered under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, is due $110.5m in relation to the sale of Malabu’s 100% ownership interest in OPL 245. Now, a three-day hearing will hold to determine who gets what.
Barnaby Pace of Global Witness, the London-based anti-corruption campaign group, said: “A hearing in London this month will determine whether some of the funds related to the deal will be unfrozen at the request of Malabu. This will attest to the UK courts’ willingness to stand firm on preventing dirty money from being laundered through the UK and it will also be an opportunity for the new reform-minded government of Nigeria to deal with a legacy of corruption from previous administrations."
“We think there’s also an opportunity for the Nigerian government to turn up, saying that the money is stolen Nigerian assets and branding the deal corrupt, which would mean taking away Shell and Eni’s one defence on the deal that the previous government signed off on the deal. This would put them at real risk of losing this massive oil bloc that has a 9.23bn barrel probable reserves estimate; if proven, that would mean that the bloc could increase Shell’s proven reserve by a third and add two thirds to Eni’s."
When Chief Etete was convicted, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was ordered to pay €150,000 to Nigeria as compensation for moral prejudice and €20,000 in fees. Upon the granting of the state pardon by France, however, Chief Etete's solicitors, Pierre Benoliel, wrote to the French ambassador in Nigeria, asking him to accord the former minister recognition and deal with him as a free man without constraints from now on.
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